We need to appeal to the whole country, not just odd sections of it
Harriet Harman’s comments today that the leadership contest should be ‘public facing’ should be welcomed by all in the Labour movement.
While the party needs to have a deep inward think about how it operates, we cannot forget that ultimately the lessons to learn from defeat will be learnt not from any one candidate or union. Instead they will come from the public that, when it came to it, could not put their trust in us.
But within it all, we have to be prepared to stand up for our proud legacy in government. We should not seek to define ourselves by putting distance between the party we are now and the party that won three successive general elections.
How can we ever hope to secure the reins of power again if we cannot give a clear and robust defence of what we did when we were last in government?
For all the problems of the Iraq War, we would never have got a minimum wage and record investment in our public services had it not been for Tony Blair’s achievement in getting Labour into government. He did this by challenging the party to reach out to areas of the country that had previously been written off as no-go areas.
The peace process in Northern Ireland, the Human Rights Act and a Britain more confident in the world are all legacies of Labour. We must shout from the roof tops about the difference a Labour government could make come 2020, pointing to the radical changes we made when last held the levers of power.
The Labour party now stands at a crossroads, and the reality is that we will only get back into government by taking on and defeating the Conservatives in those marginal seats we should have won – seats like Nuneaton, Lincoln, Broxtowe and Hastings.
Let ‘s not forget that even if the party had kept its seats in Scotland, it would still be in opposition.
As a party we need to stop navel-gazing and reach out across the whole country, engaging with all those voters in marginal seats who could not bring themselves to put a cross next to their Labour candidate.
The blunt truth is that it is only by persuading voters as a whole that Labour is credible will we get back into power; not by persuading ourselves.
And for those in any doubt, have a look at this weekend’s polling by YouGov for the Sunday Times. Forty per cent of voters said the next Labour leader needs to position the party firmly in the centre ground of British politics, with just 21 per cent saying they should take it to the left.
In an interview with the Economist prior to the recent election, Tony Blair observed that May’s election was shaping up to be one ‘in which a traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result’.
He was right then and he is right now. Whatever people think of Blair, the fact remains that he won three resounding victories, one of only two Labour leaders since 1974 to have won elections for the party.
If opposition is what the party ,then, let’s pick up where we left off.
But if power, and the ability to actually change things, is what we want then we need to be challenged, we need to be modernised and we need to be reformed into a pro-aspiration party. We need to be a party that talks to the whole country and not to odd sections of it.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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31 Responses to “Comment: Labour can only win from the centre”
Ian
It’s not that Labour will be ‘not left wing enough’, it’s that they won’t be at all left wing, therefore rendering themselves pointless. More to the point they’ll be abandoning their real supporters, the people the the party was formed by and for. We can’t have the middle class co-opting, gentrifying and ruining what is not theirs, that would be to the disadvantage of every low paid, struggling person in this country and would leave the march of the neoliberal right entirely unhindered.
We will not have a permanent Tory government, every two r three elections they will have pushed their look too far. That’s when a proper Labour party – and I’m not calling for communism, popular centre left will suffice – will be there to take the reigns. Once in government they can prove themselves worthy of peoples trust.
We cannot possibly have a permanent Conservative government, the country would be looking like a post-apocalypse hellhole within two decades and we need a Labour party as a remedy. The vote Labour would need from the centre right will not materialise, as has been proven, they would have to move so far to the right they would be worthless decaf Tories. Even then, the voters they would be chasing would stick with the Tories.
Moving right is both pointless and traitorous and will leave millions without a voice.
James Chilton
It’s foolish to label anyone as ‘traitorous’ who’s made observations (that you don’t agree with) on the current political situation, and Labour’s prospects of returning to power. Your opinions are not the gospel truth.
The rest of what you have to say has too many unexamined assumptions and unsupported assertions on which to base a coherent argument.
Unless a Labour government can extend its appeal beyond it core vote – which is too small now – it will be out of power indefinitely, and the people at the bottom of the pile will suffer. In that very probable event, at least you would have the consolation of knowing that while they suffer, your political faith is untarnished by considerations of the state we’re in.
Lerge Bimsy
Labour should move to the centre and appeal to the beloved marginal seat voters. Then we can have another election decided by dithering, clueless, self-interested idiots and I can vote for a proper left wing party which actually gives a shit about principles – The Green Party. I wonder if the unions are brave enough to prise themselves away from doomed Labour’s neoliberal tit and join me too?
The democratic system in this country is broken beyond repair. In five years time the Tories will have wrecked as much as they can. In ten years time – a desert for progressive politics.
Peter Martin
This is exactly right. The arithmetic for moving to the right doesn’t make any sense either. The Tories received the support of about 25% of the electorate (counting the DNVs), Labour about 20%.
So, 75% of the electorate didn’t vote Tory. So how about NOT trying to appeal more to the 25% who did and instead trying to appeal more to the 75% who didn’t?
Keith Rowley
Maybe you prefer a left wing echo-chamber to decent debate!