Progress to launch “Campaign for a Labour Majority”

This morning Progress will be announcing the line up for their conference – at which they’ll be launching their new “Campaign for a Labour Majority”. It is planned to run from this May for a year.

Progress will be arguing that Miliband has been successful in the areas he has focused his attention in so far – eliminating the Lib Dems as a progressive force and reaching out to activists on the left – but they will also argue that it’s time for a new phase of Miliband’s leadership, where the party needs to improve its poll ratings to ensure a majority. They’ll be arguing that the number of 2010 Tory voters that the party can win back over to Labour must be a major metric in the party’s election planning – and that there are large number of gains we must make from the Tories.

The campaign will have both policy and organisational elements to it.

In policy terms the aim will be to continue to push for the kind of ideas espoused in the Purple Book and their follow up pamphlet the Purple Papers. In particular, Progress are going to spend the next year prioritising four policy areas:

– Fiscal responsibility and growth
– Public sector reform
– Getting Britain back to work
– Universal Childcare and Social Care

Organisationally, there is also going to be a focus on “widening Labour’s electoral map” by working on what they’re calling the “frontline forty”. From seat number 67 (Norwich North) to 106 on Labour’s target seat list, Progress will be focussing their time on the seats they believe the party needs to win to secure a majority. From October the will be a series of regional events around these seats – and another policy based publication next spring.

The New Labour campaign group will also be launching some exclusive polling at the conference from YouGov along with an essay from Peter Kellner, contrasting what people expect from majority Labour Government compared to majority Conservative Government.

Progress conference will be held on May 11th – and we’ll bring you full coverage on the day