The Prawn Cocktail Offensive was the scornful name given to the British Labour Party's success (while in opposition in the 1990s) in winning trust and backing from the United Kingdom's financial sector. The Prawn Cocktail Offensive was executed under the Shadow Chancellorship of

John Smith John Smith is a common personal name. It is also commonly used as a placeholder name and pseudonym, and is sometimes used in the United States and the United Kingdom as a term for an average person. It may refer to: People :''In chronological ...

, who accompanied Mo Mowlam on an extensive series of private lunches and conferences with City figures. Keir Starmer's efforts to also win back the trust of the UK Financial sector has been described as a 'Prawn Cocktail Offensive 2.0'.

Origin of name

A prawn cocktail is a

seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...

entrée popular (but regarded as something of a luxury) in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. By the time of Smith and Mowlam's operations it had acquired unfortunate connotations of

naff Naff or NAFF may refer to: People: * William E. Naff, an American scholar of Japanese language * Lycia Naff, actress * D-Naff (born 1974), a Namibian award-winning Gospel rapper, and a former street gangster * Petty Naff, a notorious rowdy of th ...

ness. The combination of this dish with the well-known political phrase "

charm offensive Charm offensive may refer to: * ''Charm. Offensive.'', a 2017 album by Die!_Die!_Die! * '' Charm Offensive'', a 2018 album by Damien Done * ''Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive ''Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive'' is a British radio comedy p ...

" was a reference to the "lunching" involved in Smith and Mowlam's plans. The first use of the phrase "Prawn Cocktail Offensive" is currently unrecorded. Believed to be a creation of journalists, the nickname sprang from remarks by senior Conservative politician Michael Heseltine, who in Parliament in February 1992 said:

References

History of the Labour Party (UK) 1990s in the United Kingdom {{UK-poli-stub