“The winter fuel debacle proved we didn’t have a programme to change the country for the better, just a belief that we could manage capitalism better than our opponents.”
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP
By Neil Duncan-Jordan MP
The recent disastrous election results are the latest proof that Labour is losing the support of the British people. Just two years after the landslide victory in July 2024 and the positive changes that Labour has made continue to be overshadowed by a series of mistaken policy ideas that have strayed a long way from the values of our party. Put bluntly, the public no longer see us as being on their side.
What these elections also showed was that the PM is a barrier to Labour winning the next election, the policy failures continue to resonate with the public – even after a number of attempts to put them right – and the whole sorry Mandelson saga simply reminds people of the sleaze associated with the dying days of the last Tory administration.
There can be little doubt, that party now faces an existential crisis. Something that hitherto was unthinkable. Namely, that we may not be in government or even be the official opposition after the next election. Moreover, we may have given birth to the most far right government this country has ever seen. What we should be clear about is that the party doesn’t belong to Keir Starmer or Labour Together or any other faction. It belongs to all of us and our weakness in recent years is that we have placed too much emphasis on individuals – either with or without a popular personality – and not on a credible policy programme.
The winter fuel debacle proved we didn’t have a programme to change the country for the better, just a belief that we could manage capitalism better than our opponents.
Tony Benn famously said “there is no final victory, as there is no final defeat – just the same battle to be fought over and over again.” The lesson is that the 2024 election victory didn’t bring with it the programme of change that it promised. We were too timid when it came to taking on vested interests – like developers or private utility companies – and we mistakenly sought to balance the books on the backs of some of the poorest in our society.
Any suggestion therefore that the party’s recovery lies in more of the same or steady as she goes is not the answer – and neither is thinking that a single individual is going to improve the situation. Both are wrong.
The party needs a change of direction – both inside and out. That is why a group of new MPs from the 2024 intake, alongside trade union leaders and established MPs are launching Socialism26.
It’s a programme for change that sets out five immediate policies that need to be introduced, five that should be done before the end of the Parliament and a final five that should go into the next manifesto. The policies include:
- Introducing emergency measures to keep down energy bills through an essential energy guarantee for all households, a nationwide social tariff, targeted support for business and an extended windfall tax on the energy sector
- Dropping proposals to curtail jury trials, lifting restrictions on the right to protest and stopping retrospective changes to indefinite leave to remain
- Funding local authorities to acquire and build enough genuinely affordable council houses to halve waiting lists by 2029
- Rewiring the economy to secure national security and self-sufficiency in food, energy and medicines and public ownership of the essential utilities we all use
- Properly taxing and regulating AI and social media corporations with proper protections for children, workers and our creative industries
And before our critics bemoan us for tacking to the left – let’s be clear that many of these policies have been in our programme before. In fact, some of them are now mainstream. What’s more, they strike a chord with the public.
Despite the calm voices and reassuring words from Cabinet members and the PM, there will be a leadership contest. The only question really is when? That is why rank and file members, trade unionists and MPs need to have a programme that they can put before future candidates to gauge where they stand on key issues. Without such a programme – we are left with the inevitable political beauty contest, based on personalities and little else of any substance.
Socialism26 offers just that. We are asking members to add their names to the list of supporters calling for the party to renew its offer to the British people, under a programme that offers the bare minimum of what a Labour government needs to do to win the next election. We need pressure for change and Socialism26 offers the vehicle to do it. Get on board – visit www.socialism26.co.uk
- SOCIALISM26 is a programme for change inside the Labour Party – you can find out more and add your support here.
- Neil Duncan-Jordan is the Labour MP for Poole. You can follow him on Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram.
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