Hugh Gaitskill

Hugh Gaitskell was the grandfather of Tony Blair's revolution, the original Labour moderniser. He was also the political mentor of the founders of the SDP. The New Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are Gaitskellite parties. However, while the 'revisionist' approach might be the same, the policy agenda is very different. Gaitskell's central political idea was the need for equality; he did not believe in markets. Who then has the right to claim 'Gaitskell's legacy'?This new life, building on the scholarship of Philip Williams, tries to solve the paradox of this passionate rationalist. It connects Gaitskell's pedantic, grey, public persona with the charming, loving and funny man people knew in private life. It is also a critical reassessment of Gaitskell's political legacy, based on interviews by the author, memoirs, private paper collections, government papers, some of which have only recently been released and new secondary material published in the last two decades.