Our new approach should be a mutual approach

By Tessa Jowell MP

Listening to some people talk about the current state of the Party you almost get the feeling that we achieved nothing during our time in government. We should not let the post-election post mortem, or indeed the leadership debates, obscure what we achieved. We have to remember that it was Labour that redefined the progressive consensus in British politics, so much so that the coalition are forced to define their approach in relation to fairness – the defining test for New Labour. Whether or not they meet that test remains to be seen.

But we also have to be honest about where we did not go as far as we should have. Too often we lacked the courage of our convictions and it meant that some of the best principles of New Labour were not wholly fulfilled. That there were many good reforms but not a wholesale transformation. But now is the time to look not just to the past, but also to the future – and what it will mean to be part of the Labour Party as we enter our next stage.

A starting point would be for us to reassert the founding principle of New Labour – to find an economic approach that marries long term economic success with social progress.

And there is no better example of this form of business than the co-operative and the wider mutual movement. In banking, where trust has been severely hit, co-operative banks, mutual institutions and building societies stand out as ethical, values-led businesses, behaving responsibly in an industry where too many have not.

Fundamentally this comes down for their reason for doing business – driven by a belief that people can achieve most when they work together, and that business should seek to serve wider social ends than just making profits in the short term.

Clearly part of this vision has to be for us to support the creation of a much larger co-operative and mutual sector in our economy. Not reliant on the capricious nature of capital markets, investor mood swings or complicated investment instruments – mutuals are sustainable businesses that put everyone with a stake in their success at the centre of their operations.

Fundamentally this comes down to their reason for doing business – driven by a belief that people can achieve most when they work together, and that business should seek to serve wider social ends than short-run profitability.

But it is about more than that.

If the experience of the Financial Crisis has taught us anything, it is that we need a fundamental change of the culture that drives many of our largest businesses. A corporate culture that is as much about values as it is about outputs, that values its staff as much as its profits, that cares about its customers’ experiences as much as their wallets. That devotes the same attention to cutting emissions as it does to cutting costs.

In short, a way of doing business that seeks to act in all of our interests – as employees, customers, investors and members of the society that we live in.

This may seem like of lofty intention. It is certainly a challenging one. But we have to remember that that the single biggest owners of UK companies are not foreign oligarchs or wealthy individuals, but us, as ordinary members of the public – through our pensions and our long term savings.

So the power resides with us to change our corporate culture – but it requires us to build a movement to make it happen.

Let me be clear: the argument that I am making today is not that this is a panacea for the challenges that the Labour Party faces. But it is an example of the wider impact that the values of mutualism can bring to creating a new kind of politics built around the fundamentally human values of equity, solidarity and reciprocity.

This post is based on Tessa’a speech The Mutual Tradition. Read Tessa’s full speech here.