Alfie Steer

Research Topic

'A Sealed Tomb': A History of the Labour Left's 'Wilderness Years', 1985-2015.

Supervisor: Ben Jackson

My research explores the history of the Labour Left during its period of political and structural isolation from the late 1980s to Jeremy Corbyn's eventual election as Labour leader in 2015. This sheds light on a previously ignored area of British political history by tracking the careers and organisation of marginalised and isolated politicians, intellectuals and activists. This research examines how the Labour Left was able to survive as a small political network. and also illustrates overlooked moments of successful resistance as well as ideological and intellectual innovation. My research demonstrates how the so-called 'Wilderness Years' of the Labour Left was far from a period of political hibernation, but instead one of ideological and political innovation which laid the foundational networks, ideas and organisational tactics that were drawn upon in Corbyn's leadership campaign. 

Publications 

Journal Articles  

• '"Keep the Party Labour": The Grassroots Alliance and Activist Opposition to New Labour, 1994-2007', Contemporary British History 37:2 (2023), pp.216-237. 

Book Chapters 

• 'Finally moving on? The Socialist Labour Party and the search for an electoral alternative to New Labour' in Evan Smith and Dan Frost (eds.), In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2025). 
• ‘The Anti-Racist Activism of Michael and Ann Dummett’ in Righteous Anger: Celebrating the Anti-Racist Activism of Michael and Ann Dummett (Oxford: New College Library & Archives, 2021).

Review Articles 

• 'On Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield, Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, and Natalie Thomlinson's "Telling Stories About Post-war Britain: Popular Individualism and the 'Crisis' of the 1970s" (2017)', Modern British History 35:1 (2024), pp.102-105. 

Book Reviews  

• 'Neil Kinnock: Saving the Labour Party? edited by Kevin Hickson', Journal of British Studies 62:4 (2024), pp.1097-1100.
• 'Histories of Everyday Life: The Making of Popular Social History in Britain, 1918-1979 by Laura Carter', History 108:379-380 (2023), pp.167-170.
• 'Rethinking Labour’s Past edited by Nathan Yeowell', Twentieth Century British History 33:3 (2022), pp.471-473. 
• 'English Radicalism in the Twentieth Century: A Distinctive Politics? by Richard Taylor', Twentieth Century British History 33:2 (2022), pp.308-310.
• 'The Modernisation of the Labour Party, 1979-97 by Christopher Massey', English Historical Review 136:583 (2021), pp.1695-1697.

Articles/Blogs (non-peer reviewed) 

• '"A Socialist Identity in Parliament"? The Campaign Group of Labour MPs', History of Parliament blog (6 February 2025). 
• '"A Socialist Identity in Parliament"? The Campaign Group of Labour MPs', Labour Hub (4 February 2025). 
• 'Beyond the Fragments: 45 Years On', Society for the Study of Labour History blog (28 December 2024). [co-authored with Rachel Collett]. 
• 'Cynog Dafis: Britain's first Green MP?', History of Parliament blog (11 November 2024). 
• 'Arthur Latham and the rise of the Labour Left', History of Parliament blog (14 August 2024). 
• 'The Rise and Fall of Labour's New Left', Verso Books blog (19 June 2024). 
• 'Convert, Cooperate or Condemn: What Could the Labour Left Do Now?', Political Insight 14:4 (December 2023). [co-authored with Colm Murphy]. 
• 'The Monday Club', History of Parliament blog (10 October 2023). 
• 'All-Women Shortlists: 30 Years On', History of Parliament blog (21 September 2023). 
• 'Parliamentarians on their past: Memories of the 1983 General Election', History of Parliament blog (25 July 2023). 
• 'Overcoming the divisions between Labour's hard and soft left', Labour Hub (17 July 2023). 
• 'Marxists Changed How We Understand History', Jacobin (14 November 2022). [Republished from Tribune].
• 'History for the People', Tribune (9 November 2022). 
• 'Salman Rushdie Was Once on the Left. What Happened?', Novara Media (25 August 2022). 
• 'Jobseeker/Total Control Racing', Left Cultures (July 2022). 
• 'Starmer's Shapeshifting', Oxonian Review (11 April 2022). 
• ‘The Media’s Love Affair with New Labour’, Tribune (25 October 2021). 
• ‘The Crumbling Foundations of the Conservative Party’, Tribune (15 July 2021)
• ‘Labour’s Centrists Ignore What Working Class Voters Want’, Jacobin (6 June 2021). 
• ‘How New Labour Turned its Back on the Mass Membership Party’, Tribune (18 April 2021).
• The Political Narratives of Britain in the Nineties’, Past & Present blog (28 January 2021).

Conference/Seminar Participation

Papers and Presentations

• '"A Socialist Identity in Parliament"? The Campaign Group of Labour MPs, 1982-2015', Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar, Institute for Historical Research (11 February 2025). 
• 'Finally moving on? The Socialist Labour Party and the search for an electoral alternative to New Labour', Modern British History Seminar, University of Oxford (23 May 2024). 
• 'Escaping the Sealed Tomb: The Labour Left's "Wilderness Years", 1985-2015', Contemporary British History Seminar, Institute for History Research (8 May 2024). 
• 'The Chesterfield conference and the development of socialist ideas and strategy in the 1980s and 90s', Modern British History Seminar, University of Oxford (27 April 2023). 
• ‘The Anti-Racist Activism of Michael and Ann Dummett’, Righteous Anger: A Symposium Celebrating the Anti-Racist Activism of Michael and Ann Dummett, New College, University of Oxford (21 November 2022). 
• ‘Finding Somewhere Else to Go?: The Crisis of Labour Party Activism in Britain, 1989-2011’, Histories in Crises: Experiencing and historicising moments of conflict, HistoryLab Conference, Institute for Historical Research (19 July 2022).
• ‘“A Huge Battle Upon Which We Are Engaged”: The Labour Left and the New Protest Movements of the 1990s’, Social History Society 46th Annual Conference, University of Lancaster (8 July 2022).
• ‘“Keep the party Labour”: The Grassroots Alliance and the changing strategies of opposition to Tony Blair and New Labour’, HistoryLab Seminar Series, Institute of Historical Research (18 November 2021).
• ‘“Keep the party Labour”: The Grassroots Alliance and the changing strategies of opposition to Tony Blair and New Labour’, Modern British History Seminar, University of Oxford (20 May 2021).
• ‘“An Alliance of the Oppressed”: The Labour Left and the Politics of Race, Gender and Sexuality after the Miners’ Strike’, Cultural History Graduate Workshop, University of Cambridge (5 May 2021).

Events Chaired 

• Beyond the Fragments: 45 Years On, People's History Museum, Manchester (28 June 2024) [co-chaired with Rachel Collett, University of Liverpool]. 
• 'Grassroots Politics', Does British Political History Have a Future? Mile End Institute Conference, Queen Mary University of London (12 July 2022). 
• Keith Gildart, ‘Soul Mining: Memory, Class and Culture in the British Coal Industry, 1947-1994’, Oral History Seminar, University of Oxford (3 November 2021).