Good evening. My name is Jessica Asato and I am Acting Director of Progress. I want to say a few words by way of introduction this evening. The last few weeks have been shattering for the Labour party. Following the expenses scandal, we’ve had to endure resignations and an appalling set of election results. When Progress organised this event a couple of months ago we wanted to provide a space for Labour activists to reflect, regroup and discuss ideas for a fourth term and I hope that is what we will have the chance to do this evening.
Progress was set up in 1996 to encourage Labour members to develop new progressive ideas, to test out policy programmes and to build support for radical progressive change. At no time in the last twelve years has this been more important.
While leadership matters are obviously at the front of everyone’s minds, it’s the question of what we’re leading for which really counts. We have lost our sense of why we’re Labour, of what we are in power to achieve and that winning elections doesn’t depend on tactics, but on being able to articulate how Labour will make a difference to ordinary citizens. It’s not that we’re short of initiatives, it’s that we can’t seem to pull them together into a coherent narrative.
But nothing in politics is inevitable, no matter how much of the media and some of our own politicians wish to see it that way. We’ve suffered defeats before, but have regained the initiative after. It’s just that this time, if we fail, it will be a long hard slog to win back the public’s support. So Progress is pushing for a leap of faith, calling for the most radical progressive agenda possible in the time we have left in government. Only a bold, decisive and fearless programme of reform will show that Labour is fit to remain in government.
Steering the economy through these tricky times is terribly important, particularly since it looks like we might be turning a corner on the recession, but it won’t be enough to win the next election. So what else does the leadership need to make a priority in the next few weeks?
First, we believe that we should make clearer plans to fight inequality in this country. The money may not be there, but the will to make the change cannot cease. We support James Purnell’s plans to encourage single parents into work, but it won’t be achievable without universal childcare. We’ve made vast strides in understanding that it’s the early years which most affect a child’s life chances, that’s why SureStart is such a success, but we cannot forget that it is parents who have the most impact in the end and who are struggling to balance work and care, caught in a system where childcare is still too expensive and patchy. We won’t see genuine equality in the workplace until both men and women are free to make a real choice about staying at home to look after their children or going back to work. Similarly, as long as maternity and paternity leave are heavily weighted to mothers, the gendered care gap will remain. There are obvious questions about how to pay for universal childcare, but a start could be made by scrapping the almost universally unpopular plans for ID cards.
Second, we should cut 25% of the revenue received by Whitehall and some quangos and relocate the money and responsibilities to local government and directly elected mayors where appropriate. We need to translate warm words on localism into action, and after a very poor showing at the local elections, this could be the time to be brave and put our trust in local democracy to take forward the next stage of public service reform. We will have to accept that there will be a postcode lottery to some extent, but if we argue for a high minimum floor of provision, we can ensure that the debate doesn’t become a fruitless exercise in merely exposing differences across authorities, but debating which policies actually work. As part of this we should explore giving tax-raising powers to local government and allow citizens to vote positively for tax increases linked to public service provision. We’ve done this at a national level with the increase in National Insurance to provide the extra we needed for the NHS, and we know that the public is more likely to accept tax when they can see where their money is going.
Third, we should use the fact that the arcane workings of our democracy and parliament have gripped the public and media by finishing the constitutional reform we have pledged over the last three elections. After getting expenses sorted, we think there is a good case for holding a referendum on proportional voting on the day of the next election, and we must finally move to a parliament which we can properly call democratic by electing the House of Lords. Progress is also campaigning for a Citizens’ Convention to look at other issues such as state funding, introducing primaries, and strengthening parliament particularly by bolstering the role of select committees, but reaching decisions on voting reform and the House of Lords in the first instance would pave the way for a more progressive politics in this country.
Finally, we need to get our dividing lines right against the Tories. We cannot continue to pretend that the next election will be won by arguing that the Tories will cut public services while we will continue to fund them in real terms. The public aren’t stupid and know that there is a fiscal gap which all political parties will need to have an answer to. Labour needs to develop a narrative which delineates the public services we believe are vital to the future of this country, and helping people through the recession, and those we would want to boost when the economy starts supporting growth, but which we can’t afford now.
Many people have said it, but David Cameron is not the heir to Blair. He isn’t at the same level in the polls as Labour was in 1996, and his policy agenda is nowhere near as developed as ours was. We have some great new candidates working hard to make the Labour case, and Labour ought to be the party of optimism and hope, all we need is leadership to see us through and give us something to be proud of again. I hope that you will join our campaign and get involved with Progress over the coming months. Enjoy the debate tonight, and thanks for coming.
