Labour’s leadership candidates need to connect with the young through meaningful economic policies

By Matthew Pitt

The numbers of bills that are steam-rolling through parliament so soon after the general election is indisputably breathtaking. It is, therefore, perhaps a good thing that the MPs are off on their holidays (in most cases this involves staying in their own constituencies) so that they can take a step back and review the past few hectic months and what possibly awaits them in the near future. The Lib Dems, for example, should perhaps use the time to consider carefully their plummeting approval rates that are primarily based on the Deputy Prime Minister not representing the government when he stands behind the despatch Box, and the remaining time not representing the party’s core values. As for the Conservatives, everything is going rather dandy for them apart from a few cracks showing on the backbenches over the issue of the controversial AV referendum. Instead, what they will have to worry about is how to present their policies as progressive once the ideologically driven austerity package hits the population. The Labour MPs, on the other hand, currently find themselves in a rather long-winding leadership election during which all five of our leadership candidates are desperately trying to show how different they are from each other and how they are able to effectively connect with the electorate.

Although a recent Sunday Times/YouGov poll put the Labour party on 36.8%, just 4.6% behind the Tories, we will have to do considerably more to make the party attractive again to the general public and especially the young voters. A potent mix of the global economic crisis, the controversial Iraq war and the grumpy Mr Brown led to a disillusioned youth who now call upon Labour to “get real”. The economic prospects for the youths are bleak: it is estimated that universities this will have to turn away approximately 180,000 people in the midst of record applications, subsequently having a grave negative impact on the already heavily burdened labour market. In consequence, with 1 million 16-24 year olds currently unemployed, there is a great risk of creating a lost generation.

Once the leadership campaign comes to an end on September 25th, the new leader and the shadow chancellor will have to conceive a realistic response to the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review within less than two weeks. But what should this entail? It remains to be seen whether any of the candidates will come up with a clear, realistic and viable plan before the party conference on making the economy the servant of the society in the long-term rather than vice-versa. The candidates should carefully consider how the negative impact on the youths can be lessened through policy measures ranging from the introduction of support to help young people to find work similar to the Future Jobs Fund to a graduate tax to prevent rising graduate fees and the removal of the newly imposed strict fines upon universities that will leave many student places empty this year.

All candidates currently oppose the austerity budget on the grounds that they would instead introduce spending cuts only the following year to avoid a double-dip recession. This is an echo of the Labour manifesto which was, according to a Demos poll, rejected because of voters believing that fiscal intervention had reached its limit and needs to be cut as quickly as possible.

Nonetheless, it is simple macro-economics that with the private sector saving more and spending less within the UK, combined with countries in and outside of the EU going on similar spending cut sprees, the economy will inevitably suffer and shrink since exports will not exceed imports while national income and employment plummets with ever-shrinking tax receipts despite the VAT rate of 20% in 2011. With young people being one of the most affected sectors of our society who will suffer under the coalition’s emergency budget, the Labour leadership candidates have to resist the temptation of introducing radically different economic proposals on a matter directly linked to the economic, educational and living prospects of the British youth just to differentiate themselves from the candidates and, thereby, heighten their winning prospects. For the future Labour leader, it is, therefore, not merely an issue of personality and charm to connect with the British youths, but one of showing meaningful connection by considering them to a greater extent in economic policies than the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.