The former Labour Party general secretary Margaret McDonagh, who has died aged 61 from brain cancer, was a formidable political strategist responsible for the tactics that won her party the landslide general election in 1997, sweeping Tony Blair and “New Labour” into office for a generation. A key figure in the modernisation of the party’s aims and values, four years later she helped to deliver a record second landslide victory.
She was a fierce, dedicated, single-minded woman whose political views had been formed by the impact of the devastating Labour party feuding of the late 1970s and early 80s, and the electoral rout it suffered in the 1983 general election. She was a rightwing pragmatist whose own background had taught her that winning support from working-class and lower middle-class voters meant that Labour had to identify with their concerns, specifically on issues such as crime and security.
