A poll conduced at the end of February by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist shows that the economy continues to be the public's most pressing concern. This is potentially a double-edged sword for Labour. The public still blame Labour, rather than the banks for the deficit. Moving beyond that will be easier said than done.
A poll conduced at the end of February by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist shows that the economy continues to be the public’s most pressing concern.
This is potentially a double-edged sword for Labour.
With the increasingly influential presence of Lynton Crosby in the Tory camp, not to mention the loss of the Eastleigh by-election, David Cameron will come under increasing pressure from Tory backbenchers to shift policy further to the Right.
Nothing new here of course.
An excellent (separate) piece for the Economist today notes that in the run up to the 2005 election, an emboldened Tory Right sought to “shift…emphasis [in the party] away from public services towards immigration, crime and, of course, Europe…”.
They largely succeeded, resulting in a calamitous electoral defeat for Tory leader Michael Howard in a winnable election.
Backbench ideologues rarely learn lessons from history, so expect Cameron to face similar demands as worried MPs sense weakness on the back of humiliations like that in Eastleigh.
Labour can, indeed, take a degree of solace from the prospect of the Tories scrabbling around to prevent their core vote indulging Nigel Farage’s protest party.
No more than a degree of solace, though.
While Ed Miliband has been wise to turn his attention to economic concerns of late in the form of (largely symbolic) policy proposals on the mansion tax and the 10p tax rate, Labour is still suffering badly when voters are asked about the economy, as a poll for YouGov this week showed.
Q a) Which party would handle Britain’s economy best?
Q b) Who would you trust more to run the economy?
| a) Which party? | b) Which team? | ||||||
| Con | Lab | Other/ Don’t know | Cameron/ Osborne | Miliband/ Balls | Not sure | ||
| % | % | % | % | % | % | ||
| Apr 2012 | 28 | 27 | 45 | 36 | 28 | 35 | |
| Jul 2012 | 27 | 26 | 47 | 34 | 31 | 35 | |
| Oct 2012 | 26 | 28 | 46 | n/a | n/a | n/a | |
| Dec 2012 | 28 | 27 | 45 | 37 | 26 | 37 | |
| Feb 2013 | 27 | 29 | 44 | 35 | 29 | 37 |
As Peter Kelner phrased it:
“Almost three years after Gordon Brown left Downing Street, more people still blame Labour rather than the Conservatives for the state of the economy and the public spending cuts that Osborne has imposed. Secondly, when asked who they trust more to run the economy, more people still prefer Cameron and Osborne to Miliband and Balls.”
While Labour is right to focus on the economy – it is voters’ main concern and Osborne is the government’s biggest liability – doing so is a double-edged sword. It is potentially Labour’s strongest area of attack, but it also risks a damaging boomerang effect.
Moving beyond the fact that the public appear to still blame Labour, rather than the banks, for the deficit will be easier said than done.
In the public mind, the party is still stuck in the Gordon Brown era, and the failure to win the argument in 2009/10 that it was the banks rather than the government which was to blame for the crisis still hangs around the party’s neck like an albatros.
142 Responses to “Labour is still struggling to leave the Brown era behind”
Alan Hall
With the tory’s shifting to the right then, Labour need to be the sensible party – of fairness and justice – with a social conscience. It is only bad news if you believe labour needs to veer right wards rather than stand fast!
Newsbot9
Yes, unfortunately the propaganda barrage from much of the media hasn’t let up.
Ermie Gumweed
I agree with newsbot9 – what this proves is that the media are driving the agenda. Labour needs to get a grip and stop apologising. As Chancellor, Gordon Brown had the longest period of budget surplus since 1979, Norman Lamont (Tory) had the greates budget deficit until the banks collapsed and the debt was manageable until the banks collapsed and Alastair Darling had to bail the banks out. The Tories have been pushing this myth about Gordon Brown for the last three years; looking back to 1997 I remember how dismal this country was – there was no minimum wage, gay people weren’t allowed to serve in the military and there were no civil partnerships (in fact we had S28 banning the teaching in any maintained school of homosexuality as a ‘pretended family relationship’.) It was still legal to discriminate on the grounds of actual or perceived sexual orientation, religious beliefs or lack of belief, or age. Part-time workers were discriminated against. Animal welfare, the NHS, taxation, welfare, the environment – all are significantly improved because of the Labour Government. They spent their money wisely (in the main) and national budgets aren’t in any way comparable to household budgets, however much the Tories try to get people to beleive it. The Tories would do well to look at their own budgets whilst in power (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/deficit-debt-government-borrowing-data#zoomed-picture)
and we’d do well to stop believing this myth of the Tory balanced budget and ask ourselves that if the only things that the Tories achieved after 18 years in power (and record revenues from our oil during that time), was the sale of all our council houses, record interest rates, discriminatory practises and the demolition of the unions then they are the ones who should be apologising until the day they die…..
Newsbot9
I don’t agree that Labour had a good record on many issues. But they were not, as the coalition is, starkly incompetent in most areas. The Tories are using the economy as a smokescreen for their attempts to roll back basic rights…
blarg1987
Labour needs a radical reform, and go back to basics, it needs to be a party of key principles rather then a party that tries to represent every tom dick and harry which all the parties try to do.
I accept it may never win an outright victory in goverment by doing this, but it will win alot of coalitions and over time grow into forcing other parties to adopt simular policies, just as the conservative forced labour to try and succeed in doing through the late 90’s and early 00’s now is the perfect chance to go back to its roots.
This may mean sacraficing funding from big supporters and being a less well funded party but it will gain something far more important……..credibility. The only caviout is that anyone associated with new labour should be put on the back burner, as a few are still thatchers children.