What should the Labour Party do now following election defeat and a change in leadership? Quite simply the Labour Party needs to remain calm and stop itself from having inner doubts. It needs to avoid self doubt and sweeping changes to it’s policies. The Labour Party should be reminding itself that the last General Election was fought and won on a single issue, that of Brexit. The last election was not an election about policies or real politics: it was simply fought as a right wing agenda of getting Brexit done and past the winning post, which had been stalling for many months under the governance of the Tories. This single agenda election polarised the electorate or basically turned off voters and put them in a state of apathy.
With election defeat it has unquestionably left the many withbthe feeling about ‘ what should the Labour Party do to be more electable and bring back voters?’. In the last General Election the Labour Party was unable to define a credible policy about Brexit and failed to get voters on board to the idea of having further ballots. So sick of the idea that Brexit should take up any more time, ideas of perhaps putting any further debate back to voters was a turn off for most voters who simply wanted a conclusion and end to debate. There was little scrutiny of any other policies going on in this election: so Labour can rest assured it didn’t loose the election because of it’s policies.
With the election of a new leader following election defeat it is probably understandable that any new leader would be asking,’ what should the Labour Party do now?’. The new leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, should resist the temptation to tinker with the policies that he supported whilst playing Deputy Leader to Jeremy Corbyn. These policies are not defunct at all as they did not form even a small part of voters decision to re-elect the Tories for another term. I would doubt that many voters at all knew what policies the Labour Party were standing on for election, simply because Brexit was so dominant. Instead what they perceived of the Labour Party was what they didn’t stand up for, namely the idea of a quick and over simplified Brexit, this is where they were at there weakest and conversely the Tories were at their strongest. Jeremy Corbyn failed to get his ideas across to voters and his stance was perceived as being weak and vague. So what should the Labour Party do now?
What should the Labour Party do? Should it throw away it’s fundamental beliefs in order to attract voters or should it stick to it’s principles? What Kier Starmer needs to realise is that Jeremy Corbyn brought the Labour Party back to it’s real and traditional values. Supporting the idea of nationalised industries for transport and the utilities and finally dismissing the failed theories of Blairism. Unfortunately Keir Starmer’s vision of the Labour Party that he wants to bring to voters has so far been very vague. I am a Labour Party member myself and I cannot work out what he stands for and I am sure that not many can. If the membership is unsure how can the electorate understand. Also how can the Party members be sure that they are promoting a vision when they are themselves unsure about what the vision is. Also questions have to be asked about why we would need to have a new vision or reinvent ourselves anyway when the policies and values we had in the previous election have not been rejected or tested. There is currently no need to move away from Corbyn’s vision for Labour Party. Change for change sake is pointless. Replacing or watering down a vision to make it more palatable is unacceptable and gimmicky. Currently the Labour Party needs to uphold it’s values and maintain it’s solid position in relation to it’s policies and intentions. It needs to uphold it’s major differences between itself and the Tories at this time when the Tories are showing their incompetency in handling the Economy and the Pandemic against a backdrop of rising taxation, broken election promises and increasing inflation.
Brexit is revealing it’s flaws and supermarket shelves are showing gaps. Prices are going up and Brexit is coming home to roost for many. The gaps between the richest and poorest is widening and becoming more evident. This is not the right time for the Labour Party to have any self doubts or be running around like a headless chicken. So what does the Labour Party need to do now? Well absolutely Nothing other than stay resolute!
What should the Labour Party do to attract voters to return. Does the Labour Party risk being just gimmicky and lacking core principles by changing?
Voters will return when they realise that the UK is in a huge mess caused by the Tories and their mismanagement of just about everything. Labour simply need a set of policies to set Britain back on track again and set the course in a new direction not the old ones. This was both the legacy and vision of Corbyn which went unfulfilled because the mud of Brexit just got in the way. However now the path is clearer and the fog of the Tories is being lifted to reveal the awful mess and predicament that the UK is currently in . The Labour Party need to remain constant to the new vision and show the electorate the new shining path that will deliver us from the awful nightmare vision of Britain that the Tories have created. The voters don’t need a watered down vision of the Blair and Brown years. Labour don’t need to be new, or gimmicky, Labour just need to be honest and forthright and standing up for the values that they have always had. Sir Keir Starmer needs to do little and should stop tinkering with ideas of New Labour or watering down values. Corbyn’s legacy of upholding the traditional values should be upheld and made sacrosanct. Anyone who disagrees should be encouraged to find a political refuge in another Party more befitting of their beliefs. A return to the old New Labour would be a huge mistake and would lack any vision or inspiration or aspirations for voters.
Labour’s lessons of the mistakes made by Blairism whereby all values were sold out in order to grab a moment of stewardship and ‘power and control’, whereby little of any lasting consequence was achieved, should be avoided at all cost. Blair’s Labour Party simply squandered power because they didn’t have the mandate to make sweeping changes to alter the course that the previous Tory administrations had set. In reality Labour were just another Tory Government in situe. The reality was that the Tories were probably very happy for Blair’s Labour to have government because there weren’t going to undo anything that they had put in place through Thatcherism and when they were ready they could assume office again with stuff basically intact and unchanged. That’s Blair’s legacy.
Future Labour need to remind themselves of this disastrous mistake to make sure that history never repeats itself. So what should the Labour Party do? Do Nothing! Change nothing and wait until a time when voter’s are mature enough to see through the Tories’s lies about levelling up and see where the real interests of Britain lies and which political party properly represents these interests. What should the Labour Party do?