‘Beyond the Budget Labour must inspire the communitarian mainstream’ – LabourList

As the dust settles on the Budget, the Chancellor’s new fiscal headroom might also create some political space for the Labour Government to define its mission outside of Treasury budget lines.

Progress on NHS waiting lists, free childcare, support for the low-paid, and energy security have too often been drowned out by the difficult decisions required to balance the books. But they also lacked impact because they are yet to be threaded together into an overarching Labour story about Britain’s future that truly connects with what you might call the silent majority – or quiet mainstream – of the British public.

READ MORE: Ben Cooper column: ‘Cost of living will decide Labour’s fate in ‘sea wall’ communities

This broad group are neither socially regressive nor radically progressive, but risk being pulled apart by the right-wing populists who have upended our politics and are intent on polarising our society. Crucially, the mainstream are instinctively communitarian in their values – concerned not solely with their pay packets, but with how the fabric of society and the changing world directly affect their families, communities and country. 

Research I undertook when Labour were in opposition found that these communitarian values constitute:

• A belief in hard work and contribution, reward and reciprocity.
• A belief that shared values and responsibilities – more so than diversity – hold society together and are as important to our fulfilment as our individual rights.
• An instinctive sense of national identity – and that elected national governments should be the primary source of power and accountability – not lawyers, the EU, or tax-avoiding multi-nationals.
• A belief that political leaders should be driven by honesty, purpose and moral conviction.
• Instinctive support for smart, affordable investment in industry, public services and their local community.
• A hunger for change that will benefit working people and wider society, welcoming many advancements but experiencing other upheaval as loss – such as the manufacturing job losses suffered predominantly by working class men.

These values crop up in other studies, including in Labour Together’s elections analysis, in some of the ‘seven segments of British society’ identified by More in Common, and within the ‘hero voters’ Labour targeted in opposition. They are why ‘think communitarian to unite voters and win trust’ was one of the major recommendations we presented to Keir Starmer’s leadership team in opposition.

Yet Labour and the centre-left are running out of time. Reform is feeding off the communitarian backlash against an era of globalisation and passive governance, which led to mass immigration without democratic consent; the offshoring of industrial jobs that gutted many towns of pride and prosperity; and a London-centric political economy too slow to react to growing resentment beyond the M25. 

The communitarian mainstream know that, for a generation, our prime ministers have been inert and weak, failing to shape markets to serve workers, or to stand up to vested interests – such as the social media behemoths, porn barons and gambling tycoons who have declined to mitigate the harm they’ve caused to a generation of young people. Society matters, but we lack a persuasive centre-left vision for its future.

In its place Donald Trump and Reform have catapulted the debates and divisions rife in America into the heart of British culture. No topic is off limits. Mass deportations was once a conversation reserved for BNP rallies, anti-vaxxers used to hide away under tin foil hats, and political careers would have been ended by rubbing shoulders with anti-abortion crusaders. 

This offers even more reason that the centre-left must hold. The bear traps for Labour are that neither progressive liberals – with their insatiable thirst for social upheaval – nor social conservatives – with their instinctive aversion to all change and modernity – offer a viable electoral path forward. Aping the Right, indulging the Left, or defending the failures of market liberalism will each lead to a slightly different version of defeat.

To succeed, Labour MPs and leaders at all levels must endeavour to ‘think communitarian’ when it comes to thorny issues. Too often their hyper-liberal instincts have led to a blurred perception of the communitarian mainstream and regressive right, hampering their ability to gauge the temperature on issues such as immigration, gender identity and grooming gangs. Kamala Harris slipped into these traps. 

Fortunately, Labour may still be best placed to deliver communitarian politics. This is because the Radical Left demand more rights without duties, squirm at patriotism, and want a society based on universal income and welfare, while the Populist Right feast on ethno-nationalism and division, talk Britain down, and – despite their cosplay – will always jump into bed with big business over workers. The extremes of each are apologists for dictators, denigrate NATO and undermine our security. And each in their way – along with the centre-right market liberals – are guilty of rampant individualism when they should be focused on shaping Britain for future generations.

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Put simply – only a bold, communitarian centre-left can save British politics.

To his credit, Keir Stamer seems to be trying. He ‘spoke communitarian’ in his impressive conference speech in Liverpool, where he presented Labour as a patriotic party of the working class, promising Technical Excellence Colleges and investment in defence and energy jobs. Yet the moral purpose behind his welfare-to-work policies – the communitarian principle that work and contribution are good for both society and the individual – were lost under the Treasury’s mission to cut spending. A similar fate may yet befall his asylum policies. This again shows the need for a persuasive over-arching communitarian story to counter accusations of aping the Right.

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Post-budget, it is time for Labour and the centre-left to stand up and talk the language of civic patriotism, moral standards, and earning rights through obligations.

There is such thing as society – and there is a real opportunity to unite it in the face of the populist right, but only if centre-left politicians can ‘think communitarian’.

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