Introduction: Labour in Government and Its Impact on Social Policy

Abstract The introduction to the themed section on ‘Labour in Government and Its Impact on Social Policy’ is setting the scene for the following articles in three steps: First, it sketches the social policy landscape at the start of the Labour Party’s current term in government, shaped by New Labour and the following years of Conservative (and Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition) rule. Secondly, to contextualise the broader political backdrop for the different policy areas that are analysed in the themed section, we highlight the tensions between the large scale of social policy challenges faced by the government on the one hand, and the relatively modest ambitions of the Labour Party, due to its self-imposed restrictions around fiscal policy and its political positioning, on the other. Thirdly, the introduction presents the rationale for a collection of analyses of the Labour government’s social policy orientations and impacts after 12 months in office, underlining its relevance and usefulness as a state-of-art resource for academics, practitioners and students. Finally, we summarise the focus and key insights from the articles in the themed section, before presenting a range of cross-cutting considerations that run across the diverse social policy areas.