 When the 1987 general election came round he did not stand and endorsed a number of Conservative candidates as a means of defeating Labour though the list included Chris Patten whose seat was a prime SDP-Liberal Alliance target which Labour had no chance of winning.Despite the above activities he was allowed to rejoin the Labour party in 1996, now under the leadership of Tony Blair, who appealed to Sandelson's centrist values.He stayed with Labour until his death in 2002 aged 78.