Ms. Toynbee:

His rise to be one of the
youngest council leaders at the age of 32 was astonishing – and he soon
became the most famous one, too. The people’s republic of Sheffield,
notorious red bastion against Thatcherism, hardly seemed the likely
alma mater for the man who came to represent to many people the most
authoritarian, rightwing strand of New Labour. If Tony Blair sprung
into the Commons ready-made New Labour, David Blunkett had the longest
political journey to travel from his red Sheffield political roots to
the pale pinks of that new rose emblem.

No distance to travel at all. People’s Republics are run on the principle that those who have managed to grasp political power know how everyone else ought to behave. Authoritarians believe the same.