Our third successive term was historic but too close for comfort, leaving 20 seats with majorities of less than 1,000 and a share of the vote lower than the one we lost with in 1979. Meanwhile, the Tories have a new leader and are rediscovering their hunger for power. To ensure the Tories cannot undo 12 years of progressive reform, we must win back the progressive vote we have lost.
First, we must persuade progressive voters that the Lib Dems are not a safe protest vote, or even a left-of-centre vote at all. We warned that a Labour vote for the Liberals would let the Tories in and, sure enough, most of the Tories’ 31 gains from us are down to defectors to the Lib Dems. We must do more to warn progressives of the risks of voting Lib Dem, while demonstrating how they are being two-timed with sweet talk on tax, student fees and Iraq.
The Lib Dems woo the right with pledges to axe the New Deal, the DTI, child trust funds, and oppose minimum wage rises. Since the election, a principle-free review of policy has seen taxing the rich and raising local income tax traded in for making the tax system ‘flatter’. Nick Clegg MP has said ‘breaking up the NHS is exactly what you do need to do to make it a more responsive service.’ Senior Tories and Lib Dems are even flirting with the idea of forming a coalition. So let’s take on not only the newly-revived Tory party, but the Lib Dem Trojan horse, too.
Second, we will only win with a party that is active, renewed and strengthened. The longer the Tories remained in power, the more councillors they lost, and with them much of the energy behind local parties. Then they lost their members, and then they lost in a landslide. All parties must renew themselves in office. So we need to rejuvenate local parties, shrug off local bureaucracy and breathe new life into the policy-forum process, with major policies discussed throughout the movement.
We must renew our relationship with the unions. People often mistake Labour’s link with the unions in terms of a small group of leaders. When I think of the unions I think of the ordinary people who create our wealth, who make life tick, who care for us, and who rescue us: the bus driver, the cleaner, the engineer, the nurse. That’s why we need closer, not weaker, links with the unions, but with a more mature partnership, built on trust. A partnership that is more than symbolic, because trade unions can act as the social balance in a global market economy.
Third, we must shout louder about our progressive record. It is only a progressive party like Labour that would have doubled public spending on health and education; taken a million children and pensioners out of poverty; introduced the New Deal to meet our goal of full employment; and introduced tax credits and the minimum wage, already up 40 per cent, and extended it to 16 and 17-year-olds. It is only a progressive party like ours that would seek to write off 100 per cent of the debts of the poorest countries, double aid to Africa, and set out plans towards universal free schooling and healthcare for all children.
Fourth, we must demonstrate that only Labour has the progressive values to face up to the challenges of the future. Only a progressive party understands that people are no longer simply willing to accept what is handed down to them: any school, when they know it isn’t best for their child; the local hospital, when they are in pain and told they must wait months, if not years, for surgery; long working-hours, when they need flexibility to balance family commitments; a rented house, when they dream of owning their own home; and a dead-end job, when they want to re-skill and move on.
Only a progressive party understands that equality of assets, like pensions, savings, home-ownership and employee share-ownership, are as vital as income. Only a progressive party understands the economic threat of China and India will only be met through high skills, secured by extending education to all aged three to 18; by funding our universities to be world-class; and by investing in science and lifelong-learning.
Only a progressive party understands that the demographic time-bomb will mean working longer and saving more, and is prepared to consider measures such as compulsion. Only a progressive party understands that tackling global warming means persuading all countries, including the US, to reduce carbon emissions, to invest in clean energy, energy efficiency and recycling.
Only a progressive party understands that it is only by tackling the global poverty that feeds extremism, by ending debt and actively promoting trade justice for poor countries, that we will tackle international terrorism. Only a progressive party understands that political disengagement can only be tackled if we first ensure our system of government is democratic, by establishing an elected second chamber and facing up to the need for electoral reform (for instance the Alternative Vote, which would protect the vital link between MP and constituency).
By the next election we must demonstrate that only Labour has its values and policies rooted in the progressive values that represent the real majority in British politics: the majority that spans the centre and the left. We need to expose the sham of the new Tory ‘compassionate conservatism’. After all, in America we have seen how compassionate conservatism really is when it passes from campaign stump to government office. We need to expose the new neo-liberal position of the Lib Dems. And we must renew and strengthen the party. We must also demonstrate that only Labour, with our progressive values and policies, can meet the great challenges of the future. That Labour is the natural home of the progressive vote and the guardian of progressive values.