We must not let history repeat itself
In May 1979 the defeated prime minister, James Callaghan, said to me that he felt sorry for new members of parliament like myself as we would be in opposition for 10 years. He was wrong. It was 18 years.
Callaghan thought the arrival of North Sea oil and the growing divisions in the Labour party would be an electoral gift to the Tories. He was right.
Recently the historian Peter Hennessy described me as ‘one of Labour’s lost generation’, so I have had plenty of time to dwell on why Labour has successful periods of government followed by long periods in opposition and why Callaghan underestimated the extent of our problem. Is this to be our fate this time? I hope not. There are really able Labour MPs in the House of Commons.
It is not uncommon for a party of government with a strong prime minister to eventually lose an election and have a period in opposition while it reviews its policies and performance. In opposition the Conservatives had William Hague and then Iain Duncan Smith. In the parliamentary Labour party we would often discuss how we could help IDS stay leader, as we knew he could not win an election. In party organisation the Tories are more ruthless than we are and they soon switched to Michael Howard. He repositioned his party to enable it to get to a winning position for 2010.
Since 1945 Labour has been in office for some 30 years and the Tories for 41 years. There were plenty of Tories ready to run down their leaders after they left office – but only for a short period. Then they regroup and are back on the offensive. Labour, however, has turned self-criticism into an art form! We do it like no other party. Only much later do we recognise our achievements in office. It is not remembered now but Clement Attlee was held to be a failure on a range of issues until we saw the light. The same has happened and will happen with Tony Blair.
A central part of our problem is that we are torn between being a party of principle and a party of power. We should not be. The two are not mutually exclusive. Power has to be won and used for clear purposes underpinned by strong principles.
Did the recent bout of elections put us in a winning position for the next general election? Sadly I doubt it. The Tories are seriously divided on Europe, and that adversely affected their vote share, but whatever happens they will have a new leader for the next election. Right now it looks like a competition between George Osborne, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, but do not bet your shirt on it. Watch out for the quiet politician, well respected in the Conservative party and who has made few enemies over Europe. That adept politician, Theresa May, could be the next Tory leader.
Labour cannot win an election while only speaking to our core voters. We will betray the millions who want and need a Labour government if we cannot present ourselves as a party that listens to the uncommitted and responds to their needs.
Every party member needs to ask themselves how we can avoid another 10 years in opposition and how we can avoid our latest very able group of MPs becoming another ‘lost generation’.
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Clive Soley is a former chair of the parliamentary Labour party
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