Where is Labour going?

A barman recently asked me, whilst I was waiting for my pint of locally sourced artisanal craft beer, to name an aspect of politics where Labour have a policy and the Tories don’t have a vaguely similar one.

‘There must be loads,’ I said and then struggled to name one.

Spending more on the police? Both sides want to do that. Tackling regional inequality? Everyone is into levelling up. Averting an environmental disaster? Although the parties differ on the details, their positions are superficially the same. Fixing the housing crisis so that young people can afford somewhere to live? ‘Nobody wants to do that,’ the barman said, shaking his head.

So, what does Labour stand for now that the Tories are for spending money and creating jobs north of the Watford Gap? As we just had Labour conference it’s worth reflecting on this. The answer is that no one knows. This is one reason why Labour is too busy fighting itself. The conflict, or High Conflict as I dubbed it recently, is over what the party should stand for. This is a crucial and necessary debate. It’s how we escape the quagmire of no one really knowing what the point in Labour is.

Starmer’s values 

Sir Keith “any other leader would be 20 points ahead” Starmer (he’s currently eight points behind) became Labour leader because the members liked what he was selling. His pitch was Jeremy Corbyn’s values with the competence and polish of someone who’s run an important, prestigious government agency in the past. This was backed up with 10 pledges, which prompted me to choose Starmer as my second choice leadership candidate.

Starmer wasn’t my first choice, but I was willing to accept some moderation, mainly in tone, to achieve electoral breakthrough and a government with core-principals I could get behind.

I now see that I have been thoroughly wallet inspected and feel a complete fool when I look at Labour and see very little of the competence that we were promised. The values behind this opposition are murky at best. They can’t even do a convincing job of being outraged at this government’s massive corruption. Starmer has also gone back on several of the ten pledges - this week he said he didn’t support common ownership of energy utilities - so there goes those values that people were voting for.

The return of the Prince of Darkness

“Do you know who I think of when someone says Labour values? Peter Mandelson,” said no one ever. Despite this, disgraced former cabinet member Peter Mandelson, a person some people unironically refer to as the “Prince of Darkness,” has found himself at the heart of this opposition.

New Labour’s heyday was 20 years ago and I can’t think what he has to offer now beyond 90s nostalgia, the vague sheen of electability (that will fool absolutely no one) and a less than confident sign that “serious” Labour is back, because nothing says serious like digging up someone from the New Labour era and then standing next to them in the hope that if the voters squint in just the right way Starmer will look like a young Tony Blair.

It shows Starmer’s desperation and lack of ideas if he’s turning to people who were, whatever your view of their politics, doing successful opposition politics the better part of 30 years ago. Can you imagine another industry where you would hire a consultant whose frame of reference is this far out of date?

“Nowhere to go”

It’s worth remembering that the seat that Mandelson once held, Hartlepool, is now a Tory seat. Mandelson once said that the working-class vote have “got nowhere to go” when asked about New Labour chasing middle-class Labour/Tory swing voters and saying little or nothing to the communities that had been voting Labour for years. Well, they found somewhere else to go.

Mandelson and Starmer clearly don’t have a vision that can win these voters back and they have no idea of how to find new voters. Instead, they would rather continue the Labour naval gazing by having a fight over how the leader is chosen, instead of engaging with literally any voters.

The party could take up the environment as a cause, which might convince younger voters (aka the future of the party) who are considering supporting the Greens to give Labour another chance, but to do this Starmer needs to find credibility or conviction. The only thing he says with any real conviction is that no one likes Labour; which he says over and over, thus making it more true.

Negative vision

The most concrete thing that can be said about Starmer’s vision for Labour is that he thinks that Labour is not a party for socialists, radicals, environmentalists or BLM supporters; unless they are very quiet and don’t ask for things that might upset little Englanders who voted for Brexit and Boris Johnson.

The Labour leadership have shown complete contempt for, and an unwillingness to engage with, those on the left of the party, which means the conflict/High Conflict will rumble on. This vision of Labour is a negative vision, defining Labour by what it’s not rather than what it is. A negative vision is all that the current leadership has. They have no answer to who Labour is for.

Saying Labour is not for the sort of people who voted for us in the last election, it’s for the people who didn’t, does make some sense. Labour is a party that needs to win more votes to be in government. However, when you look at how Labour is polling amongst the people who didn’t vote for it you have to ask yourself: what is going on? This brings me back to the barman in the craft beer micropub, pointing out that the Tories are offering these voters what they want and Labour has nothing special to offer them.

Hollow platitudes and bad vibes

If you asked Starmer “who is Labour for?” he would probably say “everyone”. Almost everyone would agree that Labour being a big broad tent is good and the party should welcome everyone and look out for everyone. However, this is how most parties describe themselves. The Tories say they’re looking out for everyone’s best interest, then raise taxes on working age people to protect the property wealth of and pay for the social care of Boomers. The Labour leadership’s vision needs to be more than hollow platitudes and giving off bad vibes to the people who have kept voting for them during these wilderness years.

At the rate the party is going we won’t put a dent in the Tory’s majority. Everyone knows this. But still we go through the motions, hoping the Tories will finally do something so bad that the voters decide they don’t want them in power. Although they’re sitting pretty after over 120,000 died from a disease that the Tories did too little too late to contain, so I’m not sure what else it will take.

Starmer doesn’t have an answer to “what is Labour for?” beyond “it’s not for socialists”. Labour also doesn’t have a policy that the Tories don’t also have a similar policy on and thus the party is completely without vision. Conflict within the Party is inevitable unless Labour has a vision for its future that all its members can believe in. Defeat at the next election is certain unless Labour can do better.

"File:Official portrait of Keir Starmer crop 1.jpg" by Chris McAndrew is licensed under CC BY 3.0