How united has the Labour Party been in the past three decades?

In the past three decades, Labour has seen a switch from ‘Old Labour’, democratic socialists, who are highly critical of capitalism, and believe in reducing inequality through state ownership and economic intervention in the private sector, to the ‘New Labour’ social democrats of Blair and Brown, who accept the free market as a necessary driver of economic growrth, and believe that combining this with state intervention and welfare can minimise its most exploitative effects. The rise of Jeremy Corbyn has seen a return to Old Labour in party leadership, although many New Labour politicians remain high up in the party, hence the divisions at the top, particularly over key policy issues. The ‘Old Labour’ far left tends to prefer that state money spent on nuclear weapons and military intervention was instead spent domestically helping the poor, and are more 'isolationist', suspicious that the European Union is a ‘capitalist club’ that will make it difficult to implement socialist policies in the UK. The ‘New Labour’ centre-left has tended to be more interventionist, arguing that nuclear weapons are necessary for national security, that the UK should intervene overseas to promote the rights enjoyed in the UK, and internationalist, arguing that cooperation in the EU is good for business. On social issues, the party combines traditional ‘Red Labour’ activists who campaign for greater social justice and equality, and are usually strongly supportive of immigration and multiculturalism, with ‘Blue Labour’ voters, who are more socially conservative, particularly concerned by the impact of current immigration levels, the European Union, and loss of traditional values.