In a Progress pamphlet launched on Monday 19 May, Peter Hain, former Wales Secretary and MP for Neath, argues that the fall of Labour’s vote to its lowest level for a century should provide a “wake-up call” for the Welsh Labour party. Describing Labour’s local election losses in Wales this month as “truly appalling”, Hain suggests that Welsh Labour has been “acting in office and working locally” as if the “old Wales” of high trade unionism, manual work and homogenous communities still exists.
Instead, he argues, the “new Wales” is “more cosmopolitan and diverse than ever in its history”. Hain writes “for the great bulk of our citizens, the old problems of just surviving are not the issue anymore. Their concerns are more the quality of their lives, the character of their environment, antisocial behaviour and crime.” He warns that Labour in Wales is not “doing enough to reach out” to the new constituents in Wales who include “English pensioners on modest incomes… who have settled for a better quality of life in Wales” and “young couples” who have moved in from the “overheated areas of England where they cannot afford to buy a home”.
Hain contends that Welsh Labour has been insulated from “many of the long-term challenges that Labour in Westminster had to face up to” in the early 1990s, and that with increased prosperity under eleven years of a Labour government, Welsh Labour must radically change to regain its support and become the Party of the “modern Wales majority”.
But he adds that Labour won’t win again until it does more for the ‘working class’ or traditional Welsh voters for whom the 10p tax issue was serious in the 2008 elections, and who have become increasingly disenchanted with Labour since the late 1990s. Hain writes “some have been caught up in a twilight world of low pay and job insecurity, where (as the TUC recently reported) the rights for which we have legislated – a minimum wage, equal opportunities and employment protection – are not enforced. Labour needs to do much more to “ensure that these rights are a reality in every workplace in Wales and that action is taken to protect temporary and agency workers. Vastly increased council housing to rent is also a key issue for this important group.”
The former Wales Secretary sets out four ideological challenges for Welsh Labour arguing that:
1. Welsh Labour must be the “party for an aspirational Wales” and appeal to both “middle Wales” as well as motivating the “traditional Welsh Wales” vote. Hain argues that these constituencies “are not at all incompatible: on the contrary, appealing to both simultaneously holds the key to a Labour revival as was the case in 1997.”
2. Welsh Labour must win the arguments for “deepening devolution within Britain rather than as a bridgehead to separatism outside Britain.”
3. Welsh Labour must “advance a positive vision for the Welsh language with a distinctive global perspective rather than the parochial one of Plaid.”
4. Welsh Labour must “claim authorship of a proud Welsh patriotism that is simultaneously British, European and internationalist, rather than separatist.”
Mr Hain believes that Labour in Wales can learn from the success in Neath Port Talbot where Labour actually increased its vote during May’s council elections because the council “did not simply deliver for the core vote but consciously delivered for aspirational voters too”, though he rejects dropping a London ‘New Labour’ template onto Wales. Hain further suggests that the “aggressive campaign tactics” used in Bridgend also provide a further example of how Labour needs to embark on a “long campaign” to win back power.
For a copy of ‘Changing Wales: changing Welsh Labour’ by Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, please contact Jessica Asato, Deputy Director, at [email protected] or call 020 3008 8180.