How different really are the politics of the north, asks Paul Brant
The north generally, and Liverpool in particular, is Labour and always has been, right? Wrong.
In 1959 six of Liverpool’s nine MPs were Conservative, and the city only elected a majority of Labour MPs in 1964. The council was controlled by the Tories until 1963. In more recent years Labour was out of power between 1998-2000.
Why does this matter? Well, because it shows, first, that Labour has no god-given right to win in the north, and, second, that if we lose our reputation for competence and delivery (as Labour had done in Liverpool in the post-Militant era) the electorate will reject us, north or south.
The Tories have always had strongholds in the north. In the rural shires outside of the urban M62 corridor they have prospered – and advanced in the last election. George Osborne represents a leafy Cheshire seat and even in the Liverpool city-region area the Tories won the seat of Wirral West from Labour at the last election. To the north-west of Hull, the Tory David Davis nurses a relatively safe seat for his party.
The resort town of Southport to the north of Liverpool has been a Liberal Democrat-Conservative fight for a generation – I should know, I stood for Labour there twice. The Liberal Democrats won a seat in the city of Manchester from Labour at the last election, and in parts of Yorkshire and Leeds they are a serious challenger to us.
In the areas where the Tories have held or won seats recently, they have won with the same message they use in the south – Labour cannot be trusted to run the country.
As deputy mayor of Liverpool, I am acutely aware that where we are in power locally we need to show that we can be trusted to run authorities responsibly. This is not easy as cuts to local government are disproportionately targeted on Labour councils (Liverpool is losing over half of its government grant). However, whether it is investing £1m in our credit unions to tackle payday lenders, or the return of cruise liners to the city, we have shown that Labour can make a real difference locally.
Where the far-left offers a ‘no cuts’ return to Militant days, it has been roundly rejected by the electorate in Liverpool, getting just tens or a hundred votes in local council elections.
The north is not a different country. Labour values of solidarity and mutual support are more deeply ingrained; a history of cooperatives and trade unionism help to embed the party – but, just as in the south, we need to demonstrate competence and delivery alongside our compassion to continue to win the trust of local people.
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Paul Brant is deputy mayor of Liverpool
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