Last week changed the face of politics as we know it, both in my constituency and nationally. The fact that the United Kingdom Independence party took seats in both elections was not unexpected, but the extent to which they did so sent a collective shiver down the spines of all the established mainstream parties.
So where did we go wrong, and what could we learn for 2015? I believe that there are three major lessons for Labour: firstly, that we must take the Ukip vote seriously; secondly, that we must become better at communicating our policies; and thirdly, that we have a role in helping the general public become independently politically engaged.
We must take the Ukip vote seriously; there is a clear need to listen to Ukip voters, rather than pushing them away and alienating them. In the lead up to the European elections, we saw political commentators from both the left and right call Ukip voters racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and various other negative labels. I do not dispute that Ukip as a party live up to these labels, but we must learn that Ukip voters and Ukip the party are different concepts, and we should deal with them as such.
Some Ukip voters are indeed racist, but so are some Labour voters, some Tory voters, and so on. It does not feel to me that these people represent the core of the Ukip vote. To me, many of those voters are normal working people that are worried about their jobs, worried about the economy, and worried about immigration. They hear messages from the mainstream, right-wing media – messages that tell them our country cannot cope under the strain of all the people we have here. And in the absence of a counter message, why should they not believe the media? I believe it is for us to step up to the challenge, and deliver that counter-message.
There is another important point here, and that is just why it is so important to us to listen to and engage with voters from all backgrounds. While I support our approach to canvassing, I worry that sometimes we can be over simplistic – we gain information about if the voter is Labour or not, then we move on. We do not often stop to engage that voter in a conversation that asks them what they care about, what they are worried about, or the change they want to see in their society. This should be commonplace: yes, we need voter identification sessions, but we also need political engagement at a deep and genuine level. It is too simplistic that we write Ukip voters off as a protest vote: many of them were protesting, but on a complex array of issues – it is for us to step up to the bar and listen to the causes and symptoms of those issues.
While we should be listening more, I also believe we should be communicating our policies better. Right now, the Labour party has a raft of strong, sensible policies that will make a genuine difference to the lives of normal people, and in doing so will help alleviate the causes of some of those fears that drove so many to vote Ukip. For instance, our commitment to strengthen and enforce the minimum wage will help us tackle the agencies that do not employ British workers because overseas workers are willing to work for less. Our commitment to freeze energy prices will help those that are worried about the effects of the rising cost of living. Our proposals around reforming the housing rental market will help stop the exploitative practices of many landlords and letting agents, and this will make a real difference to nine million people. But on the doorstep, many voters have not heard enough about these policies. We must be stronger in communicating our message.
Finally, we must deal with Ukip’s attack on the mainstream political parties, by developing a genuine two-way conversation with the electorate. This is the only way we can show voters that they can trust us – and in fact they can trust us more than Ukip: by listening, communicating, and then delivering on our promises at the earliest possible opportunity.
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Sarah Champion is member of parliament for Rotherham. She tweets @SarahChampionMP
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The whole of Europe is fed up with the European parliament because we are all so helpless to change anything. At the dinner yesterday, the unelected Herman Van Rompuy made a few empty promises, nothing concrete, you understand. Look at all the waste that goes on in Europe, Euro MPS make scads of money and regularly fiddle their expenses, the parliament, at France’s insistence, moves every six months between venues, the money that costs could probably save the whole Greek economy! And the accounts have not been signed off for years, what does that tell you?
As a democrat I suppose that it is time to accept defeat. If the majority of the electorate really believe this Daily Mail/Express narrative about Romanian murderers killing off the remaining population which the doctors with their vaccines failed to bump off, then what can a normal sane person do? Why argue about the relative figures of the EU bailing out Greece, and trying to shore up a European nation which could bring down British banks when you can moan about the comparatively tiny sum involved with having two parliaments, Unlike Britain. Which has at least four. Probably save the whole Greek economy? Why bother arguing ? You’ll only get some rubbish about supporting PIE, quoted from a publication which needs to keep topless photos of 15 year old girls for their records.
Ukip have a limited shelf life and voters don’t see them for what they really are: a cluster of far-right xenophobic alcoholics with paranoid-schizo tendencies.. I wouldn’t be surprised if they crumble before next May, due to mismanagement and [further] scandals: You can bluff some of the people most of the time, and most of the people some of the time but you can’t bluff all the people all the time.
I am afraid that’s not going to crack it; we only got 25% of the national vote on Sunday and UKIP won in the UK. I am concerned its very serious and there is no reason yet to suggest ex-Labour votes will drop them although flirtatious ex-Tory voters will return to their party because they want to maintain their economic and middle class advantage. To quote my old school motto – ‘what we have we hold’.
We should be communicating our policies better. Try a simple test. google Labour. End up on http://www.labour.org.uk/home. Now list all those brilliant policies you can find…..
Oh dear. I agree 100%.
So Labour’s appalling recent record in Rotherham has nothing to do with the hammering you got last week then? The local Labour MP went to jail for expenses fraud. Following the child grooming scandal in Rotherham the local Labour council was described by the Home Affairs Select Committee for being “inexcusably slow” to prevent what they found to be “the widespread, organised sexual abuse of children”, many of which were in the care of the local authority at the time. And the council was forced to apologise for removing children from foster parents on the basis that they were members of Ukip.
And that’s all in the last two years. Perhaps instead of the usual platitudes about listening and communicating better or, worse, the patronising suggestion that the choice made by voters can be put down to messages they heard from the “right-wing media”, it might be better to face up to the reality that a lot of previously loyal Labour voters feel badly let down by politicians who have taken them for granted and failed to stand up for their interests.
I am an ex-Labour activist but I voted Ukip on Thursday. I am glad that the voters of Rotherham are standing up to the complacent and arrogant Labour establishment in their town. They evidently don’t trust you anymore and I for one don’t blame them.
Sorry but this refers to a lot of local politicians and not just Labour.
Our local council decided that it would be funny to have a “mong” board so that the staff could laugh at photos submitted for disabled passes. I complained. Nothing happened.
The same council thought that it would be funny to drag a terminally ill woman into court,
despite being drugged to her eyeballs and being told to stay in bed by her doctor. Apparently the council officer would not accept that she had already submitted a council tax form. After being made to wait for several hours in a very confused and bewildered state the officer tried to send her home again. I complained. Nothing happened. It is quite obvious that there are a lot of people in local government who are unsuited to living in any form of civilisation, including Labour councillors. How can this explain the torrent of complete nonsense that some people believe is rational foreign policy?
The rise of UKIP should be seen as both a challenge and an opportunity for the Labour Party. This should galvanise LP activists and people who up to now who have been half-hearted supporters of the Party to get up and vocalise their rejection of reactionary right wing policies and argue the case for inclusion not isolationism. Neil
There’s no moral component to immigration. It’s simply about money. Which is why I find it quite permissible to argue that our employment, housing, health and education sectors are being crushed by simple numbers. They are.
the problem with labour mp’s they do not connect with the white working class who have voted labour for decades.you treat them like a pariah.you have’nt a clue.all you know is london.but to call those who switched to UKIP as bigots,ill educated is going too far.and umunna on LBC called them The Tea Party.so the UKIP vote that was higher in Doncaster,.that would be The Yorkshire Tea Party? have we suddenly become The Democratic Party? what people really detest is that is fine to parachute in to a northern heartland,safe labour seat.many london or south east born career politicians..maybe cllrs,researchers,advisors,then an mp.well no more.we hit you in the ballot box.many of these labour voters have been members,activists.but for a senior woman mp of long standing saying london is’nt racist, the reverse of the rest of the country.we won’t be treated like this.you have time to change.my labour mp she has never been down our street.but she’s there getting her picture taken with some celebrity who lives in london.Labour or UKIP 2015?