Lessons from Europe in how to revive a moribund Labour Party

Europe loves a sweeping political narrative, and two which have dominated the debate in the last decade are the concurrent rise of the populists and the death of the left. With each election, analysts scramble to fit the result into one of these grand themes—Labour’s collapse in December’s general election was a convenient piece in this narrative puzzle.

But reports of a death can be greatly exaggerated, and as Labour elects a new leader and tries to plot a new course, it can seek inspiration from other European countries where left-leaning parties have seized back votes.

Perhaps the swiftest resurrection can be found in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid, or PvdA) was declared moribund after plunging from 38 seats in the 150-member lower house to just nine in the 2017 election. It went from being the second-largest party to a party of little relevance at all. Then just over two years later, the PvDA made a remarkable turnaround by winning the most votes in the 2019 European Parliament elections, beating a new populist party, Forum for Democracy, which was expected to win.

The Netherlands has a different political system to Britain, with proportional representation meaning there are 13 parties sitting in parliament representing a range of diverse views. With so much choice, allegiances switch more readily, but there are still useful lessons.

The PvdA’s success has largely been attributed to the vision and approach of Frans Timmermans, an unashamed Europhile who was the party’s lead candidate. He constantly championed the European values which nationalists attack, with an unerring ability to articulate the case for the European Union with passion and clarity. He also proved he had listened to the electorate’s concerns and put an emphasis on tackling climate change.

In many ways it was a similar approach to President Emmanuel Macron in France—using the emotion and passion of the populists but channelling it into a positive vision for the future. Some on the left are reluctant to look to Macron for inspiration, given his policies upon taking office. But his rise to power is instructive. He was faced with a foe—Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally—who demonised migrants and the EU. Instead of trying to pick off her supporters by aping some of her rhetoric, he took the opposite stance and made the moral argument for protecting refugees and remaining in the EU, while also offering a vision for how he would transform France for the better.

There are other examples in Europe of politicians taking a determined stance on issues affecting their voters. In Slovakia, two particularly odious populist leaders were making headlines in the run up to the 2019 presidential elections. Then an unknown civil society activist entered the race, passionately campaigning for a country free from corruption and calmly but firmly defending her liberal values without belittling those who believed differently. Zuzana aputová convincingly won in a run-off to become Slovakia’s first female president.

Germany, meanwhile, is often held up as the case study of the death of the left, with the once-mighty Social Democrats now with record low support. But as they have fallen, the Green Party—which is left-wing in its economic outlook—has risen to become the second most popular party in current polls, seizing on concern about climate change and turning it into an election-winning issue.

In all these examples, left-leaning forces have made gains by offering a clear and positive message delivered with passion, emotion and moral clarity.

This is the opposite of the campaign Labour ran under Jeremy Corbyn. The manifesto was packed with policies which confused voters, and few knew where Labour stood on Brexit, the key issue of the election. There was little moral clarity on the anti-semitism in the party, with a combination of denial and half-apologies giving the impression of a party obfuscating as it tried to appease its different factions.

Of course, not all the recent successes by left-wing parties fit neatly into this narrative. In Denmark, the Social Democrats watched their traditional working-class supporters abandon them for the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DPP), which came a close second to the Social Democrats in 2015 elections. Then last year, the Social Democrats held on to power, while the DPP saw its support plummet to just 9 per cent. The Social Democrats had campaigned to preserve the welfare system and act on climate change. But the party also adopted much of the DPP’s anti-migrant rhetoric, supporting xenophobic policies such as the seizure of refugees’ jewellery.

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that this tactic alone led to them outflanking the far right. Support for the Social Democrats stayed largely stable from the last election, while other parties picked up the collapsing DPP vote.

Wholesale adoption of nationalist rhetoric is not the answer, as has proved the case for many parties across Europe which have tried it. In Denmark, the key was shifting the debate away from migration on to issues where left-wing leaders could offer positive change. It is instructive that two of the parties which did make large gains in the Danish elections were liberal and left-green parties, and they have now formed a coalition with the Social Democrats. It is vital to listen to people who feel like their voices have not been heard. But the key to winning them over is not moving further to the extreme—it is finding the issues which matter and offering a passionate argument for a better future.