The former prime minister who fascinates the Labour Party

SIR KEIR STARMERMI sometimes says that he must emulate all three previous leaders of the Labour Party to win governing majorities. He has to revive a battered country like Clement Attlee (who was prime minister in 1945-51), modernise the economy like Harold Wilson (1964-70, 1974-76) and fix public services like Sir Tony Blair (1997-2007). The second of this trio particularly fascinates the party. Sir Keir flecks his speeches with Wilson-era clichés (“white heat” and “the pound in your pocket”). Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is an admirer, as is Nick Thomas-Symonds, a shadow minister and author of a well-reviewed Wilson biography.Wilson left office tainted by sleaze and fixated by alleged 5 plots against him. Labour’s left reviled him as a schemer, the party’s right as a relic who had failed to modernise Britain’s economy or tame the unions. He has undergone a resurrection in part due to Labour’s chronic nostalgia, and in part because it is tired of losing and Wilson was a winner (“the sine qua non of a successful leader,” notes Mr Thomas-Symonds). The dates of his election victories are used by some in the party as shorthand for possible outcomes this year: a “’64” (a tiny majority), a “’66” (a big majority) or a “’74” (a hung parliament followed by a majority in another election called soon after). But the Wilson renaissance is also because his era has strong parallels with Labour’s position today.