Speaking at the Labour Women’s Network political day, Mandy Telford outlines her answer to ‘what would a winning offer from Labour look like’:
I suspect the one thing everyone in this room can agree on is that we have quite enough alternative labels and colours for the Labour party and are delighted to get behind ‘One Nation’ Labour.
But I am going to add another one anyway. And it is the one which must underpin One Nation Labour at every level.
It is Credible Labour.
If we are going to win again in 2015, we have got to focus relentlessly on restoring our credibility with the electorate.
Building our credibility was the biggest success of New Labour in opposition and the thing we must do above all to win again:
1) We identified the weaknesses that damaged our credibility in the eyes of the electorate– the creation of New Labour as a brand was all about a clean break with the past
2) And then married that hard edge
All of that was done…with a powerful sense of optimism and hope for the future, which Tony Blair exuded.
I know Ed Miliband gets this. He has spoken eloquently of the challenge we face of delivering on our aspiration to change the country when there is no money.
The two difficult bits are these:
1) Firstly, getting the public to hear the tough bit.
Yes, it is essential we erode the Tory’s competence ratings by pointing out their economic strategy is taking the country backwards
But when we say the other lot want to cut too far too fast now, we are in danger of the public hearing that we would be spending more if we got back in.
And what is their number one fear for the country?
That public debt and the deficit is out of control.
And what is their lingering fear about us after we were at the helm when the financial storm broke?
That if we get back we will spend too much money and make things worse.
The Tories used their free airtime in the early months of the coalition to ram home the message that it was Labour spending which caused the crisis – no mention of an international banking crisis. This daily soundbite from George Osborne and co has taken its toll.
We have to find a way to address that in a way that cuts through with the public.
Johann Lamont, Labour leader in Scotland, recently slayed some sacred cows . Her questioning of many of the nice “freebies” that the Scottish Government gives away (tuition fees, bus passes, a freeze on Council Tax) was met with horror on the left. But I’ll tell you something – people are listening to Joann now, something Labour Leaders in Scotland have struggled with since Salmond returned to Holyrood.
They are listening because she is saying something they don’t expect to hear from a Labour leader, particularly one elected as a “left winger”.. And while they may not love it there is a growing respect for Johann because she is being honest. Scotland can’t afford the universal benefits it introduced in the days of plenty now we are all in days of want.
In the UK the picture is similar – though thankfully David Cameron is no Alex Salmond (am not sure even Alex Salmond is these days). Labour can only gain a fair hearing from the electorate when we are prepared to take a few brave decisions – that means taking a long hard look at tax and spending.
2) And the second difficulty is how to convey that aspiration for the future in a way that chimes with people’s lives – and doesn’t undermine tight fiscal discipline we need to set for ourselves
Ed has tasked us to set out what One Nation Labour will mean in a host of areas. That is absolutely right.
But I think the credibility bar may be higher than it was for New Labour.
In 1997 we gave the sense we wanted to end the days of crumbling schools and hospitals but said next to nothing about public service reform. After 13 years of being a reforming government that transformed health and education, we won’t have that luxury again. We have to be aggressively on the side of the families who rely on services against vested interests, whatever they are;
And while Black Wednesday destroyed the Tories’ economic reputation, the country itself was relatively optimistic and buoyant after the years of growth that followed. In short, they felt confident to embrace the change that New Labour offered.
In 2015 it is likely that people will feel the economy remains in deep trouble. For all their palpable incompetence of recent months, it is in that climate that a risk message from the right – better the Tory devils you know, don’t let that lot screw it up again – can be most potent.
That is why some of the recent attempts to stimulate radical new thinking is so important.
We can do this. We are in the right place, we offer hope for the future and the public have woken up to the fact that the Tories are:
a) not really on their side
and b) a bunch of incompetents.
But the lesson of New Labour is people will only come with us if they think we are credible on the stuff that worries them most.
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Mandy Telford is an elected member of the Progress strategy board, a former special advisor to the Minster for the Olympics and London, Tessa Jowell. Before that she headed up Unite’s flagship anti bullying programme ‘Dignity at work’ and was the Labour Students President of the NUS during the 2004 top up fees debate
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Not sure who exactly Mandy Telford thinks is listening to Johann Lamont in Scotland, but I suspect for electoral purposes she’d better hope it’s not the electorate.
On the other hand, the Scottish Tories have listened and following Johann Lamont’s lead with relish. Ruth Davidson was quite to condemn over 80% of the Scottish population whom she declared were “non-contributors”. An erroneous and devastatingly self-damaging assertion.
Mandy Telford makes an astonishing – but alas predictable -claim that “Scotland can’t afford the universal benefits it introduced” – This is akin to the Scotland’s too small/too poor school of political campaigning, but it is false.
Firstly the Scots Government does not provide “freebies”, universal benefits are financed by revenues raised. Ms Telford will know that Scotland is a neutral and more often a net contributor to the Treasury (while many other regions of the UK are net beneficiaries).
The reason why some universal benefits, such as medicines, care for the elderly and tuition fees is because these are the social priorities of the people of Scotland. Furthermore, all research consistently shows the people would prefer the spending on Trident replacement to be redirected to alleviating further social barriers in Scotland. On the latter point, Johann Lamont is not so brave as to unequivocally declare her position on Nuclear WMDs in Scotland.
Brave, of course, is one word to describe Lamont’s adoption of the Tory “something for nothing” mantra, another word is sleekit. The question is, who does Labour now represent in Scotland? In adopting the Tory “one nation” ideology, the curbs to public delivery of essential services, to low tax/low spend agenda, many could and would be right to say that whoever is listening to Johann Lamont, its not Labour’s supporters in Scotland.