Defeat is the toughest teacher. But unless Keir Starmer confronts Labour with hard truths at the upcoming party conference in Brighton, defeat is what he faces in the next general election.
I learned the hard way. In the race for the West Midlands Mayoralty in May, my team made progress to be proud of. Our vote tally rose by 14 per cent—a hefty increase, but not enough to beat the Tories’ strategy of cementing the right.
What is true for the West Midlands is true for Britain, and that’s why five lessons must be learned—and fast—if Labour wants to avoid a fifth successive general election defeat.
First, our strategy can’t be to “rebuild the Red Wall” or “conquer Southern discomfort.” It must be both. Not only is this necessary, it is possible: today’s electorate is more volatile and less party-tribal than ever. But persuading former Tories to vote Labour means changing to rebuild affinity—if not affection—with workers in the modern world.
One story makes my point. I wanted a mayoral manifesto for white van man and woman, but could we find Labour members with white vans for the launch? I nagged for weeks but no one could, until I persuaded a mate to join us. Yet in the West Midlands there are 100,000 people who work as contractors or from vans. That’s one in 12 of the workforce. How could the party of labour not fight their corner?
Second, we have to fix our non-working class problem. Labour actually has a narrow lead among adults of working age. But Britain is an ageing country, and in 2019 we lost the over-65s popular vote by over three million. A third of Tory voters are over the age of 65. Our biggest problem isn't the red wall; it's the grey wall.
Third, we shouldn’t launch the policy until we get the story straight. I love policy. I drove my team bananas with our policy focus. But what Labour lacks today is a strategic narrative: the morality tale of where you’ve come from, where you are and where you are going.
Over 25 years ago, the Labour Party had a short, sharp debate on exactly what our story should be and rewrote clause IV. Today, we cannot cut through without an evocative tale of how we build our future with pride in our past, fed by old roots in industry and community. And in the telling, we shouldn’t be afraid of culture wars. We simply have to bring the best of our culture to the fight: compassion, cooperation and mutual aid. The fountainhead of the Labour Party is the basic instinct to look after each other. We should talk about these community values and campaign on them.
Fourth, we need to grasp that while radical is good, plausible is better. Everyone in the Labour Party thinks we need radical policy, even Tony Blair. But what we rarely debate is: is it plausible? Voters are deeply cynical about politicians’ ability to tell the truth and their ability to actually change anything. As it happens, plenty of radical policies are plausible. But every policy needs to pass a test: will voters believe the Labour Party is capable of actioning the change we say is needed? Do the ideas fit together? Is the whole more than the sum of the parts?
Fifth, we have to fix the broken party machine. In the wake of my own defeat, an old friend asked me straight: was the defeat organisational or ideological? In truth, it was half and half. Keir needs to be blunter about just how bad things have become. By the time we got close to May, not only were we being outspent by five to one, we still had members of Labour Party staff briefing against me and the campaign.
The financial crisis, the Scottish referendum and the Brexit vote have shaken the kaleidoscope of politics. Our country faces a dangerous decade. Boris Johnson cannot lead us through the choices on the road ahead. Yet this buffoon is going to remain prime minister—unless Labour moves faster to learn the lessons of defeat.
This piece has been amended to make clear that Clause IV was rewritten more than 25 years ago, rather than “nearly 20 years ago” as originally stated
