The ‘evolution’ of devolution: assessing Labour’s legacy in England

Debates on political decentralisation in the UK date back at least to the beginning of the 19th Century. Yet, only over the past two decades have we seen the implementation of devolution across the country, and the Labour Party has undoubtedly played a key role in this process. Whilst until the late 1970s Labour’s approach to devolution was mainly ‘reactive’, responding to pressures coming from the ‘Celtic nations’, proactive discussions within the party and clearer policy lines started to concretise in the 1980s. From 1997 onwards, once back in power, Labour opened a process of constitutional reform and put devolution into practice, adopting an asymmetrical approach tailored around the different nations of the UK – even though divisions were often rife within the party over the subject. After the 2010 general election, however, once in government the Conservative party has increasingly (and pragmatically) taken ownership of the devolution agenda. Thus, twenty years on, devolution still remains an ‘unfinished business’ and the process is far from settled.

Against this background, the aim of this Chapter is to assess the legacy of the Labour party in the on-going process of devolution, focusing on England – which remains, by and large, the ‘gaping hole’ in the devolution settlement and is therefore one of the most controversial cases within the UK. The analysis will: i) examine the roots of the English devolution debate within the Labour party; ii) offer a critical overview of the way in which devolution was framed, conceived and put into practice by the Labour party whilst in power (1997-2010) in England, focusing first on policy developments and then assessing the party political dimension of the debate; iii) explore how the devolution agenda has evolved from 2010 onwards, concentrating in particular on continuities and changes between Labour and Conservative approaches, and evaluating Labour’s legacy in this respect as well as most recent developments . The analysis will show that divisions as well as dissonance of views and approaches within the Labour party hindered the devolution agenda in England during their time in government. As such, English devolution remained a dilemma within Labour’s programme of constitutional reform that the party did not manage to address in full back then and with which it still struggles to grapple.