The Trotskyite group Militant (also known as the Militant tendency) took control of the Liverpool City Council through much of the 1980s defining the city's politics, Militant and the public perception of the Labour Party's relationship with the Marxist far left.
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Takeover of the Labour Party
In 1982, Liverpool District Labour Party had adopted Militant policies for the city. It adopted the slogan "Better to break the law than break the poor" which had been the slogan of the Poplar council in the East End of London in 1919-20 and was to appear on the Liverpool City Council's banner in 1984-5.
Militant claimed that cuts to the Rate Support Grant for the city were unfair and argued that £30 million had been "stolen" from Liverpool by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government. Prominent Liverpool Militant supporters such as Derek Hatton and Tony Mulhearn argued that the minority Labour Council of 1980 should have attempted to set an illegal "deficit budget", spending money on the needs of the people of Liverpool, even if it exceeded the council's income. It should demand that central government return the "stolen" money to balance the books.
Control of Liverpool City Council
In May 1983, in the face of sustained negative local and national press coverage, the newly Militant-led Labour Party gained 12 seats in the local elections and took control of the council from the 1979-1983 Tory-Liberal coalition. Now committed to an ambitious regeneration strategy, whilst refusing to make any above-inflation rent and rate rises, its new seats included the Tory leader of the council. The new leader of the council, John Hamilton was not a Militant member.
Labour's local election vote in Liverpool increased by 40%, or 22,000 extra votes. In Broadgreen, Labour's vote increased by 50% and in the June 1983 elections, Militant supporter Terry Fields, standing on the slogan of "A workers' MP on a workers' wage", won the seat for Labour. The BBC had classed the seat as a marginal Tory seat in 1979. "It was the only Tory seat that was won by Labour" the Militant reported.
The Liverpool Labour Party's vote continued to rise, Militant claimed: "In 1982 Labour got 54,000 votes in the city, in 1983 77,000 votes, and in 1984 this soared to over 90,000. In 33 of the 34 contested seats Labour's vote increased. Labour held all 14 seats it was defending and seven seats were won from the Tories." However, no more than sixteen of the elected councillors were Militant members.
Urban Regeneration Strategy
In 1984, Liverpool City Council launched its Urban Regeneration Strategy to build 5,000 houses, seven sports centres, new parks, six new nursery classes and other works, many of which were seen to completion. The 1,200 redundancies planned by the previous Liberal administration to balance the books were cancelled, and 1,000 new jobs were created. The office of Lord Mayor was abolished and the ceremonial horses sold.
In 1985, the council joined the rate-capping rebellion in an alliance with left-led councils across Britain. Apart from Lambeth, the sixteen other councils which had followed a policy of not setting a rate had bowed to the rate-capping measures of the Conservative government, and set legal rates. The left leaderships of these councils favoured a strategy of delaying the setting of the budget, but one by one they found the means of setting a budget, leaving Liverpool and Lambeth to fight alone. The council declared "In the event of Tory threats of bankruptcy and possible arrests becoming a reality, all out strike action will take place".
Illegal Budget
On 14 June 1985, Liverpool City Council passed an illegal budget, in which spending exceeded income, demanding the deficit be made up by the government. As bankruptcy loomed and plans for all-out strike action were finally discussed, they were narrowly lost, and not all unions balloted their members.
Liverpool councillors were advised in late August 1985 by the District Auditor that the council was about to break its legal obligations and would not be able to pay wages to its staff by December of that year. In September 1985, rather than face immediate confrontation with the law, the Labour group on the council decided on the 'tactic' of issuing ninety-day notices to the 30,000 strong workforce to gain leeway to "campaign more vigorously than ever before". A covering letter dated 19 September 1985 sent to council employees with the redundancy notice, signed by council leader John Hamilton and his deputy Derek Hatton, explains:
In his autobiography, Deputy Council leader Derek Hatton acknowledges that taking this advice was an enormous mistake, from which the council never recovered. Although the council did not actually intend to make anyone redundant, many council staff felt the future of their jobs at the council were no longer guaranteed. The 90-day notices were seen as three months notice of redundancy in all but name and treated as such by the media. It was, Militant's general secretary wrote, "a major tactical error."
The Council balanced the books in November 1985 after gaining £30 million in loans. The Militant newspaper in an editorial called the budget an "orderly retreat".
In the mean time, the Urban Regeneration Strategy of the Liverpool City Council continued to provide jobs and build houses, schools and sports facilities. Lord Reg Underhill, since 1975 a long-standing opponent of Militant, wrote in a letter to The Guardian in September 1985:
1985 Labour Party Conference
Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock made a speech to the Labour Party Conference at the Bournemouth International Centre on 1 October 1985 that attacked Militant and their record in controlling Liverpool City Council:
Labour MP Eric Heffer walked off the platform during the speech while Derek Hatton repeatedly shouted "lies" at Kinnock from the balcony, and later condemned "the rantings and ravings" contained in his speech.
Disciplinary Action against Militant
The NEC subsequently suspended Liverpool District Labour Party in November 1985, and began an inquiry into the council's conduct. A minority were opposed. Dennis Skinner, then an NEC member, thought it was a diversion from the Tories and the "class enemy". "They're going to spend a lot of time examining their own navel," he said. Peter Kilfoyle as an organiser with a specific remit to remove Militant supporters from the Labour Party.
Terry Fields increased his majority in 1987 and Labour did particularly well in Liverpool, leading Militant to deny Neil Kinnock's claim that its policies were unpopular. Militant's general secretary, Peter Taaffe, subsequently wrote:
Derek Hatton was expelled from the Labour Party in June 1986.
Rate Capping Defeat
In Liverpool, the district auditor had charged the Militant-led 49 Liverpool city councillors £106,000. Their appeal to the House of Lords was lost in 1987 and an additional charge of £242,000 was imposed. The money was raised from donations from the Labour and trade union movement.
Expulsion from the Labour Party
When Eric Heffer retired, Lesley Mahmood, a "Broad Left" councillor and a member of Militant, stood for the Labour nomination. Peter Kilfoyle, who had been the Labour Party organiser in the city since 1985, gained the nomination by a narrow margin; he had been involved in removing Militant influence from the Liverpool Labour Party. Mahmood stood as a "Walton Real Labour" candidate in the subsequent byelection but only gained 6.5% of the vote.
Terry Fields was also criticised for his lack of support for Kilfoyle in a neighbouring seat as well as his militant approach to the community charge and was expelled from the Labour Party in December 1991 and in the 1992 general election stood as an independent against the Labour candidate, Jane Kennedy, but was defeated with only 14% of the vote.
The Alan Bleasdale-scripted television serial GBH (1991) was based on the period of Militant's control of Liverpool council.