‘You end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – a Labour council – hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.’ One of Neil Kinnock’s most famous and admirable moments was when he turned on the Militant tendency in his party from the stage at the 1985 Labour conference in Bournemouth. When he reached this section in the speech, he was heckled from the floor by Derek Hatton, the deputy leader of Liverpool Council, who called him a ‘liar’ for his attack on Liverpool council’s conduct. Kinnock then addressed Hatton directly, saying: ‘I’m telling you, and you’ll listen – you can’t play politics with people’s jobs and with people’s services or with their homes.’ Militant was later found to be in breach of the Labour Party constitution, and Hatton was expelled in 1986. Most who entered government with Labour in 1997 felt Kinnock’s confrontation with the hard left paved the way for the party’s return to power in the ensuing decade.
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