Rebuilding Labour as a progressive patriotic party will need a broader foundation than Brexit, writes John Denham. This article is part of The Labour Interest series.

For much of the time, political history moves incrementally. The divisive issues of one moment seem barely important a little later on. At other times – Clement Attlee’s government, the election of Margaret Thatcher, the fall of the Berlin Wall – we know nothing will be the same again, even if the consequences are not immediately clear.

Jonathan Rutherford is surely right to say this is one of those decisive moments. His key claim that ‘the era of liberal dominance is ending’ should probably read ‘the assumption of liberal dominance is ending’. Neoliberal economics deserves to be far more discredited than it has been, with no widespread popular or intellectual support for any particular alternative yet emerging. In popular culture, more people recognise that cosmopolitan values are not the only ones in town, but few of the self-confident holders of liberal views see any need to find common ground with those who differ. Liberal views are indeed in a minority but so, too, are those of the social conservatives, and also of those who to cleave to a value-lite ‘how does this work for me’ view of the world.

Finding common ground between such diverse values sets is key to the project of national renewal outlined by Rutherford. Labour’s problem is well described. The ‘party of Labour’ has no clear idea of what, in a complex society, is now ‘the labour interest’. Labour has had its greatest successes when the labour interest was part of a wider story of the nation and the national interest. That was Attlee’s triumph in the wartime coalition and in 1945, and, though Tony Blair’s government can now be seen as part of a period of gradual change, 1997 was a national victory.

Rutherford is also right to highlight Labour’s retreat from cultural politics, except the identity politics of minorities. A narrow definition of Labour politics as the balance between markets and the state sweeps aside all the relationships, values and shared stories of culture, nation and place that matter so much to the vast majority of people.

Finding a new national story with shared values at its heart is the pressing priority. Can Brexit be the event or process that makes this possible? Rutherford’s idea that ‘the people of England have shown more faith in themselves and their country than have their governing class’ should not be dismissed out of hand. Listen to the Remain arguments: ‘we can’t manage outside the European Union’; ‘we must have mass migration because the 60 million people who live here aren’t capable of doing the jobs we need’. These in a tradition of declinist pessimism well documented by historians such as Robert Tombs.

Such national self-confidence is derided by the fashionable academic view that we must tackle rightwing populism by explaining more clearly how truly awful and indefensible is our national history. The historical record is important but in politics ‘yes, we can’ will always triumph over ‘we can’t manage’. ‘We have a lot to be proud of’ will always beat ‘we have much to be ashamed of’.

Certainly, Labour should unreservedly accept the referendum verdict and demand that all the promises made to voters be delivered. Trying to halt the process from the sidelines, let along demanding free movement from negotiations in which Labour will have no voice, would simply erode support for the party further. My own Brexit policy proposals are similar to Rutherford’s.

And yet at the end of the day I am wary about making the politics of Brexit the defining politics of a fresh start for Labour. The issue is, for all its importance, too narrow. The stark divisions it reveals are not the most promising place to start bringing people together. Brexit will tell us little about how to build a genuinely cohesive, diverse nation. And, while the EU has had its many problems, there is no easy successful route to Brexit however self-confident we are.

The Brexit process is a journey we must travel, and turn to our best advantage. But rebuilding Labour as a progressive patriotic party will need a broader foundation.

–––––––––

John Denham is a former Labour member of parliament and cabinet minister and is director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at Winchester University. He tweets at @JYDenham

The essay this article is in response to, ‘Brexit is Labour’s future’ by Jonathan Rutherford, is available here. You can see all The Labour Interest articles here.

–––––––––

Photo