Campaign for a Labour Majority

Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg gives his support to the Campaign for a Labour Majority which Progress will be launching at their conference tomorrow. 

With only two years to go until the general election, the scale of the challenge to achieving a majority Labour government is not one that is lost on me or my colleagues in the shadow cabinet.

I know from visiting our battleground seats – Labour’s 106 offensive target parliamentary seats that we would need to gain to secure a comfortable Commons majority – that we have much to do. Places like Carlisle in the north, Lincoln in the east and Dover in the south. The route to electoral success passes through these constituencies.

I am convinced that the task is well within our reach. Our ambition was set out in our bold strategy, targeting Tories and Liberal Democrats. We have rejected the argument made by some that we should focus on fewer seats. Ed Miliband is clear: we are in a relentless pursuit of a majority Labour government. That is what ‘One Nation’ is about. No ‘no-go areas’ for Labour. The permission to govern – your political mandate – is determined by voters in Milton Keynes, Harlow and Sherwood, as much as by the voters in Liverpool West Derby, Sunderland South and Glasgow Central.

The UK needs a government with a clear, resounding mission. One with a politics that is firmly rooted in the centre-ground and that is relevant to the challenges facing the future of this country. For those of us in the party who have been around a while, we remember the days when the Labour was consumed by itself, endlessly wrangling over issues that were irrelevant in the minds of those we needed to convince for the permission to govern. Our history tells us that when political parties indulge themselves in such a way, they are destined to irrelevance and political defeat.

To win we need to attract a broad coalition of public support. This is not a new argument but it is one that we need to renew again and again. Our strategy must be shaped by the ‘kitchen table issues’. We need to speak to the concerns of people – right across the country – and to their aspirations. Aspiration is a powerful tool. The Tories talk about an aspiration that is the preserve of the few.

Take, for example, education policy and Michael Gove’s planned changes to GCSEs. He wanted to take us back to a system where children would be told at 14 that you’re second best; that you shouldn’t aspire to be Premier League; don’t dream big. That is his message: aspirations for the few, before young people have even had a chance to explore, let alone realise, their potential. Fundamentally, theirs is a project that is truly conservative.

For Labour, aspiration is about unlocking the potential of those who weren’t dealt such a good hand, as well as those who were. With the Tories, the mask is slipping. We know that the language of aspiration is one that guides us as we move forward our policy offer for 2015.

We know also that to win outright we need a new way of doing politics. To borrow from the late Philip Gould, Labour can only win if we confront the ‘emptying stadium’. For years, Philip championed the need to address this phenomenon. For decades we have seen disengagement at the ballot box. People are not disengaged from politics but they are doing politics differently, through their community networks and through their consumer choices. They are doing politics despite the failure of political parties to reach out to them. Through the work started by Movement for Change and being led by Arnie Graf, Labour is beginning to transform the way we do politics. We know from seats like Wirral South, Birmingham Edgbaston and Gedling (where decisive gains won Labour Nottinghamshire County Council last week) that deep-rooted community networks provide the foundations for electoral success against the odds. Effective community engagement must become the norm, not the exception, if we are to win in 2015.

In case we needed reminding of the constraints of coalition, we have been given ample food for thought under this government. Take childcare, a huge issue facing the country. It was three years into government before the ‘Quad’ could agree on a policy that will not deliver anything for parents until 2015 at the earliest. Yesterday we saw more sabre-rattling on the split over childcare ratios. Drift has prevailed over leadership. Drift has prevailed over leadership. A strong mandate, a licence to govern, will ensure that we can deliver on a radical programme of government for Britain.

Finally, I am delighted that Progress is launching its Campaign for a Labour Majority and I look forward to working with Progress, affiliates and members up and down the country in the two years that follow to secure a majority Labour government.

Progress annual conference takes place at the TUC tomorrow. Ed Miliband will be delivering the keynote speech and you can book tickets and view the full agenda and line up at www.progressonline.org.uk/event/pac13.