Event report: After May 1st: how can Labour win the south?

John Denham told a packed Progress meeting on Tuesday that he was optimistic about Labour’s prospects and branded talk about whether Gordon Brown should remain leader ‘damaging’ and ‘ridiculous’.

At a debate held to discuss how Labour can win back support in the south following May 1’s dismal election performance, the secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills insisted it was futile to debate which group of voters – core or new - Labour should target.

‘I am optimistic that we can win in the south as long as we talk with confidence about the society we want to create for southern voters,’ he said. ‘At heart we either believe we belong - and therefore win - or we don’t believe we belong - and therefore lose.’

Denham said Labour must not forget that it had governed well in the south, citing policies such as the minimum wage and investment in public services that had resulted in higher living standards. ‘I am absolutely certain there is not a single constituency in south-east England where there is not a clear majority of people who have been better off in the last 10 years than they would have been under the Tories.’

Charles Clarke – whose cover story in this month’s Progress magazine has been widely trailed in the media – agreed that Labour’s poor showing in the elections did not mean the electorate failed to recognize the party’s achievements since 1997. ‘May 1st was a slap in the face from an electorate that wants us to succeed but feels we stumbled,’ said the former home secretary.

He added that the government could only regain the electorate’s confidence by conducting politics differently and avoiding the politics of triangulation, setting out clearly what it is trying to achieve and focusing on long-term issues. Clarke’s specific proposals included a radical change in attitude to sustainable transport and energy, increasing confidence in the criminal justice system and addressing short-term errors – saying that problems should be addressed ‘in the same spirit’ as the chancellor’s recent statement dealing with the 10p tax controversy.

Joan Ryan MP, vice-chair of Labour’s campaigns team, argued that effective political campaigning would be fundamental to any recovery as it would enable the party to keep in step with the issues voters cared about.

‘If your main issue is not what voters think is the main issue, you don’t get their trust and you can’t give political leadership,’ she said, adding that it had been proved many times the party did best when it had established relationships with voters on the ground, in places like Slough, Oxford, Hastings and Enfield & Haringey.

Talk of vision was important, said Ryan, but had to be accompanied by a relationship with the electorate. ‘We need a thorough going change of attitude to campaigning. The electorate will abandon us if it’s all ideas and they don’t see delivery.’

YouGov’s Peter Kellner, who also contributed to the latest edition of Progress, said the underlying issue that mattered to voters in the south was the economy, stupid, with pessimism at its highest rate in 40 years. This was a curious state of affairs, Kellner explained, since the economy was not in the dire state it was in the early 90s or early 80s. And while people were feeling the pinch from rising costs in essential goods such as milk, bread and petrol, the major cause of pessimism was that voters had become frightened about the economy, ‘blaming the government for not taking action to forestall horrors they fear lie ahead’.

Labour’s fate at the next general election would be decided over the next nine to 12 months, said Kellner, pointing out that after Black Wednesday in 1992 the Tories hit the ‘point of no return’ – unable to recover its reputation even though the economy faired pretty well between 1993-1997.

Labour had not reached the point of no return yet, said Kellner, but if the economy didn’t soon show signs of recovery, it could reach that point later this year.

Kellner urged the party to stop using statistics – ‘any claim based on numbers is apt to be disbelieved’ – and outline its concrete achievements such as Sure Start, the minimum wage and civil partnerships. ‘It’s not a bad record and Gordon was behind a lot of it as chancellor. Let’s get away from this self-indulgent crap about Gordon [and the leadership]. We need to persuade people that the taxes they’ve paid are used effectively.’

Comments

[Robert]

Higher living standard for whom, this Labour so called ideal that they have helped people is a joke beyond a laugh, they only helped the pensioners because they grew up and made them selves into a large group which could hurt Labour, the 75p benefits rise was shocking and woke people up to New Labour.

I do not care what people think of me I'm disabled, since Labour has come to power not once not one single time has my benefits rise covered the rise in my council tax, if Thatcher had carried on the way she was going I'd be better off now by £35 a week in fact we are worse off now under Labour than at anytime before.

How is that looking out for people, Jesus I forgot disabled people are sub human under Labour sorry forget i said anything