Reforming the Labour Party

By Peter Hain

Ed Miliband has set out his stall to change Labour and reach out to those who lost trust in us. As part of that process of change he has asked me to look at reforms to the Labour Party’s structures. My test for change?:

“Does it make Labour a party once again able to stand up for the aspirations of the many and not just the few. Does it make Labour a party capable of winning the next election, capable of reaching out to our members, traditional supporters and all Britain’s hard working families as well?”

Between 1997 and 2010 we lost tens of thousands of party members, activists and councillors, and 5 million votes. To win next time we have got to reinvigorate the party and re-enthuse our supporters so that all become missionaries for Labour.

However successful we were as a government, we disempowered our members and through that, disempowered our supporters. The party has been hollowed out and our mission now must be to transform Labour into the most powerful political force in British politics.

We need a fresh Labour politics. Instead of a model which has seen Labour in common with all other parties lose members and traction with voters over the last few decades, we need a different kind of party embedded in local communities and reaching out in new ways to involve many more people – especially young people.

On policy making, both Old Labour conference confrontations and New Labour centralised control, failed: the former losing voters, the latter losing first members and activists, then voters. A new approach to policy-making is needed under which our members and affiliates are heard but at the same time show greater responsibility and engagement in the difficult choices faced in government, to make decisions with heads as well as hearts.

I don’t subscribe to the view that ending the union link will strengthen our party. Disenfranchising millions of working people who have a say in Labour decisions is not the right answer. But the focus of our reforms should be to reach out not to just those working people but also beyond, to all those not in trade unions, but who share Labour’s values. This matters when it comes to making policy and it matters in things like leadership elections. When Ed Miliband won the leadership he gained a real mandate from the 175,000 votes he received, nearly 30,000 votes more than anyone else. But that’s not enough: we need to involve even more people so that Labour will again rightfully be called the people’s party.

This is a very important review, but with realistic expectations – we won’t build Labour into a popular movement for change simply by rewriting the rule book. Changing attitudes, changing Labour’s culture and promoting good practice is the key to success.

Peter Hain MP is Chair of Labour’s National Policy Forum

If you have an idea for reforming the party, you can submit it to our “Building the Party” series here. We’ll also forward it to Peter as part of the party review.