Speech to Labour North-West conference, 5 November 2011

We meet at a time of challenge and opportunity for the Labour party, and at a time of anxiety and frustration for the country.

We are still bruised by our defeat, but more importantly the public are hurting as a consequence of our election loss.

Today I want to talk about how we can rebuild to become a party of government again.  To achieve that I think there are three big challenges:

•    Developing and demonstrating Labour answers on the issues that matter
•    Exposing this Government’s abandonment of the centre ground in British politics
•    And understanding the trends of modern Britain to change our Party once more

The principal challenge for Labour is bridging the gap between some people’s perceptions of our recent past and the country’s near future – and doing so in a way that is consistent with our values.

To win again we need to support what we did the last time, have a clear plan about we need to do next time and change the way we do politics.

We are trying to do what we have rarely done before. Tony Blair broke the pattern of our election successes by winning three in a row. Now we need to overcome most of our history and only for only the second time win immediately after losing. It will be tough, with two parties ranged against our economic argument and the disadvantage of the boundary changes, but we have it within us and must be determined to be a one term opposition.

In doing so we are developing answers to some of toughest challenges like public sector reform, British business productivity and how to make lasting change with less money in the future.

Inherited poverty

In politics and in the Labour Party we understandably debate inherited wealth. I have always been much more fixated by inherited poverty. This is something really personal for many of us. I represent amongst the most prosperous people in Scotland. I grew up just one street outside my constituency in one of Glasgow’s housing schemes. My then home and my constituency are only separated by one street and an open field. Yet there they are divided by seven years in life expectancy.

In the past inherited wealth has led us to debate our policies. Today inherited poverty should make us question about what type of society we are.  The way I look at it is that each family is a chain and every generation is a link in that chain. But for too many there is a chain of disadvantage connecting too many generations of the same family. In government we weakened that chain of disadvantage, but we didn’t totally break it.

One of the things that I believe we should always stand for is that working class parents can bring up middle class kids.  It is a core purpose of the Labour Party and we must never rest until we do. But think about what this government is doing. Cutting Sure Start. Trebling tuition fees. Scrapping the EMA. Young people out of work. A black hole in apprenticeship places. Crime rising. House-building slowing. Opportunity is being curtailed and futures are less bright.  Many young people get one chance in life and it is being squandered by their government.

It should never take a Tory government to show how much we miss having a Labour government. But for many it is just hitting home.  We already knew this from the last time they were in power.  Youth unemployment is just under 1 million – as it was in the mid 1990s.  The country cannot afford that.

But just as the Tories are repeating the mid-1990s we cannot simply relive the late 1990s.  We must understand and reflect the trends of modern Britain. Society is ageing.  Living standards for working people are stagnating.  More young people will wait longer before entering the housing market.  Modern communities are characterised by multiple cultures, languages and traditions.  Overseas events have direct and rapid impacts on local neighbourhoods.  There is less deference to authority and voting behaviour is more volatile.

We need – and are developing – Labour answers in this new context.

Welfare

We are looking how we redesign a welfare state that prepares people for a changing world of work. Our welfare system must reward work, protect the vulnerable and be strong on those who avoid their responsibilities. The Labour Party must stand once again as the party that believes in both the right and the responsibility to work.

We are saying to those who do the right thing, who do work hard, who do pay in, that there is something more that comes back. Because people should contribute to a society that they seek to benefit from. On the 75th anniversary of the Jarrow march we remember that we are a Party formed on the right to work not the right not to for those who can.

But compare our approach to that of the Government who are now looking at freezing all benefits to cut the cost of welfare. Where is the fairness in what they’re doing?

The recession was primarily caused by the powerful at the top not the most vulnerable at or near the bottom. Like the folk who have come to see me in my surgery.  Like the man who has worked all his days and now finds himself out of work for the first time in his life.  Or the single mum juggling the rising costs of food and feeding the family and worries about how to afford heating the children’s bedroom during the winter. There is a better way to cut the costs of welfare – a Labour way. Tax the bonuses of bankers and use that money to create new jobs. Cut welfare by cutting unemployment not by picking on the poor.

Economic Insecurity

This government has for a long time been hoping they were right on the economy, but secretly feared they were wrong.  And so it is proving.

One in five young people are out of work.  There are more women unemployed than any time since 1988.  Jobs in the public sector have been slashed with no plan for growth in the private sector.  Here in Lancashire the recent news that BAE is cutting nearly 3,000 jobs will have a devastating impact.

The Tories at first said that the recession was because the Labour Government spent too much, as if building too many schools and hospitals in the UK caused the collapse of financial institutions in the US. They are now attempting to attribute stagnation and downgraded forecasts to Europe’s woes.  Their own explanation of their own policy is diminishing their own credibility.

It is compulsory that we demonstrate there is a different way of dealing with the economic crisis. If we don’t people will conclude that politics can make no difference.

We are upfront on the need for tough decisions on tax and spending cuts and honest about our record.  We know there would be cuts under Labour.  And of course it’s right that we say that we didn’t make every penny work hard enough for the public and we did not sufficiently regulate the financial service sector.

Under Ed Miliband’s leadership Labour is making clear that there is an alternative which would foster growth.  Let’s get out on every doorstep and tell people about our five-point plan to create jobs, help struggling families and support small businesses.

And people need to know that the next Labour government will live within its means and spend money wisely.  So we will introduce new fiscal rules because with money tight we won’t be able to spend our way to a new economy in the future.  We need reform, and so our industrial policy will encourage British business, we will help firms which take on apprentices and we will reform banks so all wealth creators are rewarded.

Honest about our record. Upfront about the deficit. A clear plan for growth.  This is our position and each and every one of us must make this case in our streets and in our communities.

Defence

We also have to do things differently in my area of defence, and I have argued that we must challenge the notion which says that Labour is the party of the NHS and the Tories are the party of the Forces. At a time when the Tories are proving that they are neither, a Labour opposition needs to be both if we are to form a Labour government.

Part of that is contrasting our record with theirs. The government have permanently changed Forces’ pensions to a lower rate that will affect all generations. It is quite simply wrong that a man today in his late 80s who jumped out of a landing craft at Normandy back in 1944 is having his pension payments permanently cut to pay for George Osborne’s economic policy.

It’s important to make clear where we do agree with the Government and offering our constructive support – as we have rightly done on Afghanistan and Libya. But where we are critical we will also be strong.  Britain – an island nation – now has aircraft carriers but they will be without aircraft to fly from them. As I said at Party Conference in Liverpool, you don’t need to be a military strategist to know what aircraft carriers are meant to carry – the clue is in the name.

Another part is opening up our party to those who have served.  The heroism of Service in the Forces exists in all parties and has always been strong in ours.  Jim Callaghan was in the Royal Navy before he was Prime Minister and Denis Healey served in the Army before he served as Chancellor. Captain Darren Clifford who introduced me is now ViceChair of Morecambe Town Council but before that he served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland and in Iraq. We are proud to have brave men and woman in our Party and we want more just like you.

That’s why we have announced that if you are a Veteran you can for the first time ever join the Labour Party for just £1. We are the first and only party to change our rules in this way.

And going further and on the 22nd November we will launch a new organisation – Labour Friends of the Forces. This will be a campaigning body within our Movement to expand our engagement with the service community.

These changes mean Labour can now be the most welcoming of any political party to our Forces community.

We talk of refounding our party and say we are rebuilding a political home – it must be political Home fit for our Heroes.

Political organisation

That takes me on to what I see as a vital challenge for Labour – political organisation.

Each of us is part of this story.  Whether stuffing the envelopes with the leaflets which change minds or having the conversations on street corners which challenge preconceptions, whether voting in Parliament to change the law or simply putting a cross next to the rose to choose a new government or councillor, without these acts our past would not be as proud and our future not as bright.

The trends of modern Britain must shape a modern Labour Party, and there is no better way of achieving that than allowing lived experience and campaigning to shape our policies.

Community organising can make a huge difference.  Local campaigns, led by residents, parent, students should be Labour campaigns.  We all know that Westminster doesn’t have all the answers.  We can only engage with the energy people have for change in their communities if we ourselves are part of them.

This is being done by some CLPs to great effect, but it should not be niche or best practice but rather standard practice.

We should engage with faith organisations, credit unions, football teams, parents’ groups or student unions as a base from which to organise, bringing together disparate groups to campaign together.

Our aim is developing a genuinely responsive politics, building on the ideas generated through the actions of our councillors, CLPs and interest groups with whom we share values.

It also means valuing and asking a little more of our members, investing more in our organisers, engaging more with supporters and inviting in those with an interest not just a membership card.

If successful, our policy platform will be richer and we will be more in touch with the new centre of politics.

Government’s abandoning centre ground

There is an opportunity now to take and shape that political centre ground.  David Cameron is no longer leading a government in tune with national interests or national sentiment.

Early in his leadership it appeared as if David Cameron may have found a potentially persuasive formula. He made a bid to convince on the issues the Tories had traditionally been hostile to. He balanced his new Conservatism with traditional Toryism, crudely attempting his own version of the balance between the traditional and the modern which was the successful hallmark of New Labour.

But there has been a significant shift away from the Centre ground since then.  Labour is rebuilding, Cameron is retreating. David Cameron’s Conservative Party has jettisoned their once disciplined occupation of the centre ground.

Communities are fearful that police are being cut and already crime is beginning to rise.  David Cameron promised the most family friendly government ever, but help with childcare is being slashed. By trying to cut spending and raise taxes this quickly we are entering into a vicious circle of benefit payments up and tax receipts down. The truth is that Britain’s economic recovery was choked off well before the eurozone crisis.

These are the issues people care about. But the Tories do not have the answers.

Amidst public anxiety about the rising costs of fuel and food, the soaring costs of gas and electricity and worries about us tipping back into recession, it’s Europe that’s fixating the Tory Party again.  Just like the old days – Minister resigning amidst scandal, sky-high unemployment and a Eurosceptic uprising.

The next few weeks and months will tell us whether the Tories have learnt the lessons of their past mistakes or whether they intend to repeat them.

Trends of Modern Britain

But we must learn from our past too. We have to change again just as we did in the mid nineties – because society is changing all around us.  We can either sit still and be changed by it or change and influence it ourselves.

Lifestyles, communities and political views are changing.  The political centre is in a state of flux, being reshaped by opinion from both the Traditional Left and the Centre Right. Uncertainty and insecurity post the economic crash have led many to look for a government determined to act in a way that would traditionally have its instincts on the Centre Left, yet issues considered by some as naturally on the Right such as personal security and law and order are now central to the public’s priorities.

Some of the old demarcations no longer apply. People value modernisation at least as much as they respect tradition.  They want individual fulfilment as well as collective security.  People are fearful of global forces, but they remain resolutely internationalist.  They are more socially liberal but more concerned too about protecting a sense of nationhood and a sense of place. People want power over their lives but demand firm government action against irresponsibility.

This is all part of the new centre ground. Labour has to make these once competing sentiments complementary and apply our values in this new context.

To anyone advocating re-running our greatest hits of our recent past I have to say that is not the answer. To anyone saying we should rubbish our record or hug the Tories close, again I respectfully disagree.  Success will come through a fusion of our traditions and a commitment to modernisation.

Conclusion

The Tories and Liberals have signed up to a Coalition whose core argument is that they are clearing up Labour’s mess.  The Tories are making an argument they believe in as they cut the size of government. The Liberals have invested in an argument they don’t have any faith in in a desperate attempt to justify joining a government whose policies they never previously believed in.

There is an enormous amount of buyer’s remorse about joining the coalition amongst the Lib Dems. It’s now an existential threat to them. Increasing numbers of them would like to get out of the coalition. But the reason so many want out is the reason they can’t leave – their unpopularity.

Despite what they say and perhaps even because of what they say don’t let anyone tell you we didn’t change the country for the better when in power.  3,000 sure start centres. Over 42,000 more teachers.  3,700 rebuilt and refurbished schools.  A free nursery place for every three and four year old. Peace in Northern Ireland. Crime down and the NHS saved.

Labour tripled Britain’s overseas aid budget and helped lift 3 million people out of poverty each year. People’s whose names we will never know had their lives saved and children we will never meet were educated around the world because we had a Labour government here at home.

Of course we made mistakes in office – the only people who don’t make any mistakes in life are the people who don’t do anything in life.

So if we don’t stand up for our record no-one lese will, We need a little less general contrition and a lot more pride, we don’t win next time by telling people we were useless last time.

I have been trying to understand where Cameron sits in the context of the Tories’ history, so I have been reading Thatcher’s autobiography.  Thatcher says she thought Jim Callaghan’s government would be the last Labour government ever.  We must remember that.  Throughout our history someone has thought that the previous Labour government would be the last Labour government. Whoever they are or wherever they are they are wrong again. We lost an election but we haven’t lost our values or our sense of right and wrong.

But we know pride in our record is necessary but not sufficient.  In politics there is never a belated sense of gratitude for what you have achieved – people rightly want to know what you’re going to do next.  That has always been the case and perhaps always will be.

We have to change the way we do politics. There is such cynicism about politics and politicians. That is perhaps no wonder when promises are forgotten in the promise of power.

But we can’t rely on the weakness of others, just as we can’t wait until the election to change: let’s change now.  We have it within us to do it, each recruit just one friend, sign up ten people as supporters, join Labour Friends of the Forces, invite former-service personnel to join for a £1. We need to be a movement for change again.

We have got to believe in ourselves. The Tories had 18 years in power and it wasn’t just because they were the most ruthless election machine in Europe. We allowed them some of their 18 years last time. For those youngsters priced out of university, for those searching in vain for an apprenticeship, for those who have lost their sense of self respect since they lost their jobs, and for the mothers who have given up work because they cannot afford childcare costs.  They know, and we know, that we cannot wait 18 years again.

The next time you hold your conference it will be mid-term for the Government, so through our energy and our ideas let’s make sure it’s not just their mid-term but their one and only term.

ENDS

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