❑ FIONA WILLIAMS University of Leeds In and beyond New Labour: towards a new political ethics of care Abstract This article argues for a political ethics of care to balance New Labour’s current preoccupation with the ethic of paid work. However, care as a practice invokes different experiences, meanings, contexts and multiple relations of power. With this in mind, the article traces the development of the concept of care taking up, in particular, challenges and differences raised by disability, ‘race’ and migration. These offer important insights for a new political ethics of care whose key dimensions are spelled out in the final part of the article. Key words: care, disability, New Labour, ‘race’, work/life balance Introduction The bottom line for reforming the welfare state could be said to be the following: to reverse the misery of those in poverty, to provide sound protection and security from social and economic risks, and to promote citizenship. The crucial questions for New Labour, given the legacy of the New Right, are, not only how to do this, but also what values and principles should underpin a new welfare strategy, and how it can be defended. New Labour’s first term was mixed. Between 1997 and 2001 New Labour had initiated a number of important reform measures, includ- ing the pledge to end child poverty; increases in income support rates for children; a national minimum wage; the commitment to neigh- bourhood renewal and to reducing health inequalities; setting up a National Childcare Strategy, a Care Commission, a Disability Rights Commission and a National Carers Strategy; support for working parents; and naming and acknowledging institutional racism and Copyright © 2001 Critical Social Policy Ltd 69 0261-0183 (200111) 21:4 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), Vol. 21(4): 467–493; 019788 467