 In 1997 , the Labour Party under Tony Blair won the election . Despite later calling Labour under Tony Blair " the idea of a Conservative group who had taken over Labour " and saying " [ Blair ] set up a new political party , New Labour " , Benn 's political diaries Free at Last show that Benn was initially somewhat sympathetic to Blair , welcoming a change of government . Benn supported the introduction of the national minimum wage , and welcomed the progress towards peace and security in Northern Ireland ( particularly under Mo Mowlam ) . He was supportive of the extra public money given to public services in the New Labour years but believed it to be under the guise of privatisation . Overall , his concluding judgement on New Labour is highly critical ; he describes its evolution as a way of retaining office by abandoning socialism and distancing the party from the trade union movement , adopting a presidentialist style of politics , overriding the concept of the collective ministerial responsibility by reducing the power of the Cabinet , eliminated any effective influence from the annual conference of the Labour Party and " hinged its foreign policy on support for one of the worst presidents in US history " . 
