As part of the Campaign for a Labour Majority roadshow, Progress is doing sterling work to open up the debate on how we can build a broad coalition of support that speaks to the concerns of people across the country and that will give an incoming Labour government a working majority.
Last week the campaign reached Middlesbrough and was supported by trade union Community to discuss a radical outlook for winning the support of the manufacturing sector in particular.
Labour must shout about our support for manufacturers and those thousands of skilled people that work in them. We should work closely with our trade union colleagues like Community, as they are reaching out to ordinary workers up and down the country and doing a fantastic job. And we are looking to see how a future Labour government could support the industry further.
That is why we have commissioned Mike Wright, executive director at Jaguar Land Rover, to look at strengthening manufacturing, to ensure that United Kingdom supply chains can be supported by government to develop innovative, high-value and high-technology manufacturing and related industries. In turn, that will provide secure jobs to those already employed in the sector as we will provide much-needed apprenticeships in manufacturing heartlands like in the north-east.
That is a message that can be taken onto the doorstep, a message that says we believe in British manufacturing and that it can contribute to the rebalancing of our economy with more businesses exporting and less reliance on the banking and service sectors.
We can also win over the manufacturing community by promoting the work that we have been doing on improving security at work.
Last month culminated with a very successful visit by the shadow cabinet to Scotland, where Ed Miliband made a significant announcement on tackling the scourge of abusive zero-hours contracts and how securing the rights of people at work across the UK, regardless of whether you live Motherwell or Middlesbrough.
This Tory-led government have presided over people’s rising sense of insecurity at work. When you do not feel confident and happy at work it has a major impact on life in general. I believe that, alongside the cost-of-living crisis that people are facing right now, insecurity at work is also a factor that people will come to consider when they go to place the ‘x’ on the ballot paper.
Labour must show that it is not an oxymoron to be both pro-employee and pro-employer. The reality is that these things go hand-in-hand. This is something that the current government completely ignores and would rather pit one group against another.
This message is backed up by our policies. When you are on the doorstep, reel off just a fraction of what we are doing for workers and business – a commitment to a British Investment Bank with regional banks to get more focussed lending to businesses, promoting a longer-term approach to deal with skills, infrastructure and our place in the European Union and the world; we will strengthen the minimum wage and introducing ‘make work pay’ contracts so that more companies pay the living wage; and support for our young people with a jobs guarantee for those out of work for over a year; and ending the exploitation of agency workers by closing existing loopholes.
By speaking to a broad coalition of support that includes those in manufacturing and that speaks to the concerns of people across the country, we can and will win in 2015.
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Ian Murray MP is shadow minister for trade and investment