Ed Miliband needs to reconnect with traditional Labour voters ©Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/Press Association Images
The dust has settled following the results of the European and local elections. The Labour Party now has to come to terms with its refusal to take the fight to Ukip throughout those elections, a strategy which was an unmitigated disaster. However a much bigger price will be paid if those who were unenthused to bother voting Labour continue to abstain next year. It is these voters, not the smaller number of Labour to Ukip switchers, that the party must become obsessed with.
If even a small percentage of previous Labour voters stay at home, then we cannot win the election. These voters are not comfortable with Ukip’s extremes, but they want to see a confident, bold and in-touch Labour Party. This time a dangerously increased number of them stayed at home.
Through this year the Labour election strategists have laboured under the illusion that strong performances from Ukip were good for our electoral chances. This was based on the assumption that Ukip's appeal was restricted to disaffected Tories, and the mistake of taking a large number of "traditional Labour voters" for granted. The mind-set behind such intellectual games is at the heart of the fault line which Ed Miliband must address.
I will not join the whisperers hoping to remove Ed Miliband. I will never be a plotter against a Labour leader fighting an election. However, I will be a critical friend. False comfort from local election results has derailed Labour before and this must not happen now.
Our immigration policy has to bridge the metropolitan elite that runs the Labour Party and our potential voters outside London; incorporating both our London strategists who are reluctant to recognise the downsides of rapid population shifts and those whose livelihoods are directly impacted. The Labour Party must create a broader coalition that includes viewpoints like those of my constituents in Bassetlaw, north Nottinghamshire. We cannot form a government without white working class Britain behind us.
Ukip’s racist pandering has undoubtedly diminished its appeal, but our complicity with what people are experiencing creates a dilemma for many of our voters. These voters are rarely racist. Their concern is about security of employment, access to housing, quality of education and they see the metropolitan elite receiving all the positives from mass migration while they are only exposed to the downside.
At its most brutal, but oft expressed, people neither resent nor show hostility to the new neighbours next door. They welcome them as fellow human beings. However they also say that it is their jobs, GP waiting times and council house applications which are affected and they resent being personally deprioritised.
The Labour elite always find the top schools for their children. They find their way to the top restaurants. They live different lives to the voters whose support they need. But it is more than that. These voters are aspirational too. They want common sense and a fair deal.
If we are to ensure that these people do not suffer the downsides of mass migration—our decisive programme should be as follows:
1. No EU citizens should receive out of work benefits until they have paid national insurance into the system for at least two years (it currently stands at just three months).
2. In Germany workers from other countries of the EU are required to pay health insurance in order to access the health system. The Labour Party should pledge to introduce a similar system for EU migrants so that they automatically pay their contribution in tax to the NHS.
3. The Labour Party should also adopt the German policy of requiring all EU nationals to register with their local authority on commencing work in the UK. Local services need to be planned, and numbers defined, to make the rate of change clear to the existing community.
4. Loopholes which allow employment on zero hour contracts, the exploitation of cheap workers and the misuse of those on temporary contracts, either individually or corporately, should be removed.
The adoption of a clear and fair immigration policy should be coupled with taking the fight to Ukip. Every working class voter that opts for Ukip over Labour is a direct failure of the party to communicate Ukip's policy failings.
I have long been advocating installing large billboards in the north of England showing Nigel Farage gleefully showing off his Margaret Thatcher mug, with the simple quotation "I am the only politician keeping the flame of Thatcherism alive" emblazoned underneath. Party activists need to be delivering leaflets highlighting Farage's support for the closure of steel works and mines, and repeating Ukip's policy on privatisation of the NHS.
Yes, we gained seats this time, including in Bassetlaw. But at 35 per cent turnout, the question has to be asked: who is more likely to vote next year, the abstaining Tory or the unenthused stay at home notional Labour supporter? Victories in London will not be enough for Labour next year. A broader coalition needs to be built, and quickly. Let us stop passing the buck by exhorting that the Labour Party is "listening" and "will work harder." What does that actually mean? I doubt the apathetic voter is expecting us to say that we will be lazier next time.
The Labour Party is built on a coalition of progressive forces, decent and thoughtful middle class families and working class aspiration. Labour Party policy has to broaden its appeal to include voices such as mine and those of my constituents, and that includes being shaped by our concerns about immigration.
If our policy of non-engagement with those in the political space that only Ukip has been seen to enter continues then we will scupper our chances of winning a clear majority at the General Election next year. And we will have only ourselves to blame.
