“Labour should advocate for socialism again.”
Labour Assembly Against Austerity and the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs held a Fringe meeting during Labour Party Conference in Liverpool: Socialist Solutions to the Crisis. Vincent Conquest reports below.
On Tuesday of the Labour Conference, socialists, trade unionists, and progressives gathered in a packed room in Liverpool to discuss the urgent socialist solutions required to provide a real change in our broken society, and to stop the rise of Reform UK. The message was clear that on the cost of living crisis, Gaza, and the economy, Labour has been getting it wrong.
The meeting was chaired by left-wing NEC member Jess Barnard, and Socialist Campaign Group MPs, as well as trade union leaders, spoke on all these issues. Ian Byrne, local MP for Liverpool West Derby and avid campaigner for the right to food, gave us harrowing examples of conversations he has had with constituents over the last few weeks. A child was brought into the hospital looking as though he had leukaemia, but when examined by the doctor, it turned out he had malnutrition. A father calling him up crying because his family had to be split up; private landlords had put his rent up by a whopping £500 a month, and he couldn’t pay. Stories like these are replicated right across the country. Byrne pointed out that these inequalities, and the refusal of Labour to implement progressive measures such as the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap and the mass building of council houses, are leading to the rise of Reform and the far-right in general.
Mick Whelan, the General Secretary of the trade union ASLEF, pointed out that it was not so long ago that Labour had a manifesto that believed in a socialist economy – in 2017 and in 2019. He spoke about the need to make work pay, and, though happy with the renationalisation of rail, how the Government should go further and nationalise mail and the other utilities. He was concerned by one aspect of the Prime Minister’s speech at Conference: the conflation of the left with the right. Whelan raised an important question: how is a Labour Government expected to beat the far-right without the left? As he so aptly put it: “We are not the enemy, we are the bloody solution!”
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, pointed out that people who voted Labour in 2024 really did vote for change; they were sick of the corruption and cronyism of the Conservatives, the austerity and the collapse of public services. She pointed to the pessimism of Labour’s message: things cannot get better, they cannot change. In fact, they have to get worse – if you’re disabled, if you’re elderly, if you’re a migrant, if you’re trans. She highlighted the complete hypocrisy of a Prime Minister, rightly, calling out Reform’s plans on Indefinite Leave to Remain as racist, only for his Home Secretary to come out and say she intends to make it harder to apply for ILR. No one is won back by this policy announcement; all it does is alienate our base. She ended by speaking out about the genocide in Gaza. A Government that continues to allow arms sales to Israel, refuses to implement sanctions, and refuses to recognise it as a genocide (despite Conference actually voting to do so), has helped to hasten the collapse of international law.
Richard Burgon, Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group and MP for Leeds East, spoke next. He explained how it is our “historic duty” to prevent a far-right government from taking power: we know what a far-right government would mean for minorities, for trade unions, for our NHS and our civil liberties. While welcoming the PM’s comments on the racism of Reform’s ILR policy, he also explained that we cannot rely on scaring people into voting Labour; this is a failed tactic from US Democrats Biden and Harris, who lost to Donald Trump last year.
Using the example of the Runcorn by-election earlier this year, which saw Reform beat Labour by only six votes while the Green Party got a couple of thousand votes, he said that Labour would be far more electorally successful if it were to tell voters to vote Labour because of a wealth tax, because they would protect your civil liberties, and would introduce a huge programme of council house building – rather than trying to win an election on Reform’s territory. On the general culture in the party, Burgon explained that had the Government listened to its backbenchers and its members, it would not have squandered so much in its first year. He also said that there cannot be a culture where MPs, CLPs or members constantly feel as though they are being chased out simply for being socialists. Ultimately, people voted Labour for a change for the better – and if this change is not brought about, then Nigel Farage will surely end up in 10 Downing Street.
John McDonnell, Former Shadow Chancellor Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, talked about Reform, using the term “proto-fascist.” The ingredients for fascism are present, and if we fail to confront this, they could develop into fascism. An example of this, McDonnell explained, has been the asylum hotel protests: he has had two of these protests in his constituency so far, with groups of masked men fighting and injuring the police, and one man being so violent that he had to be tasered.
McDonnell laid out five important steps that the Labour Party could take to prevent the rise of this proto-fascist climate. The first is to stop making catastrophic political mistakes: the winter fuel allowance cut still comes up on the doorstep despite being u-turned on, the two-child benefit cap needs to be lifted, and the disability benefit cuts (which McDonnell fears may come back again) need to be ruled out completely. The second thing was that Labour need to listen to its own members and its own backbenchers. The third was that Labour needed to stop dancing to Reform’s tune, pointing out that the left having nowhere else to go simply is not true anymore. The fourth is to have a genuine transformative budget: a windfall tax on the banks could be looked at; a financial transaction tax in the City should be looked at; a land valuation tax should be looked at. Of course, a wealth tax should be looked at also. Finally, his fifth point was that Labour should advocate for socialism again. More democracy, a more equal society, and the redistribution of wealth and power.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill and recent deputy leadership contender, closed the meeting. She spoke about how the deputy leadership campaign was a good opportunity to make some important points about how the Labour Party has to change course. With Labour haemorrhaging support and members, who will knock on the doors and hand out leaflets? Labour is currently on 20 points and this number could go lower. Austerity is being implemented, a genocide in Gaza is being supported, and Labour’s reputation is being tarnished. Reform cannot be “out-Reformed” and if Labour want to succeed, they need to be better at being Labour. People expect better from Labour; they want a decent education, a decent NHS, and they want peace. They don’t want welfare cuts, F-35 jets, and deregulation.
On the issue of Labour rebellions, she pointed out that it is not the SCG or Labour backbenchers who are washing their dirty linen in public, so to speak, but it is the leadership pushing unpopular polices in the first place. If Labour talk about what actually matters, with honesty and with actual socialism, not the weak words and policies being pushed at the moment, the tide can turn and Reform can be beaten.
- Vincent Conquest is an Arise – a Festival of Left Ideas Volunteer and Young Labour member.
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