At the party’s National Policy Forum in Wrexham, Ed Miliband talked of the need to build a ‘genuine movement’. ‘A cause not just a party. A mission not just a programme. A movement not just a government’. Beyond the soundbites, he opened the case for an important aspect of his strategy and one that party members should support.
We learned from the 2010 general election the importance of reaching out beyond our natural base to defy the national swing in seats like Birmingham Edgbaston and Wirral South. We can and should draw lessons from Barack Obama’s campaign on the dividends that come from outreach beyond signed up members. In the Audacity to Win, David Plouffe offers a mantra for this strategy. It is an approach we should embrace.
The Refounding Labour exercise pledged an opportunity for radical thinking. Radical thinking on the role of supporters within the party’s structures will be met with hostility by some members. However, we must reflect on the nature of Britain. Britain has changed and so must we. Only one million voters (1 per cent of the electorate) are registered as members of political parties. Can we really think we can turn back time to the ‘good old days’?
This is, of course, not to say that we should not be excited – and responsive – to the needs of the 65,000 new members joining Labour since May 2010. Nor that we each, as an individual members, do not bear responsibility for recruiting more signed up members. But we must reflect on this reality and offer a means by which we can reconnect with voters who share our values and aspirations.
So what then of the role of supporters?
There are certain privileges that only signed-up members should enjoy: voting rights in the selection of candidate shortlists and the opportunity to hold office within the party are of course, rightly, two sacred cows.
Beyond this, there is great opportunity for innovation. Progress has championed the possibility of closed primaries for PPCs. Funding becomes the obvious barrier here and such an approach will require a longer term strategy.
More short term and local, open meetings and hosting community networking events and socials are options. Local campaigns on local issues, non-partisan but on issues of significant local importance offer further scope. The Movement for Change is held up as an exciting programme of outreach that could marry our values with the wider coalition of supporters we need to win.
With the weight being attached to the importance of such initiatives by Miliband, might the party incentivise or device pilots and programmes of work within some of the so called ‘islands seats’ in order to build the coalition of support needed within these communities?
Given the resource constraints Labour is under, it is unlikely that much can come from the centre. It therefore relies on CLPs to embrace this logic and drive this agenda forward.
Building a new coalition of support is a given for Labour. Without which we will be doomed to permanent electoral defeat. Anyone who has read John O’Farrell’s Things Can Only Get Better despairs at the prospect of a deja vu.