The Labour Party and the 'Politics of Englishness'

This thesis examines how the Labour Party has engaged with the so called ‘politics of Englishness’. It does so by considering the extent to which Englishness has been politicised and through discussion of the way in which the Labour Party has responded to it. An analytical framework based on politicisation and the importance of identity, governance and political conflict on it is used for this task. The thesis then considers the Labour Party’s relationship with the ‘politics of Englishness’ through analysis of primary data gathered from semi-structured interviews with leading national and local Labour politicians in England. This analysis enables the thesis to conclude by detailing the current state of the Labour’s relationship with the ‘politics of Englishness’ and allows it to consider how the party might engage with it in the future.