Labour must do much more to attract working class voters, say LabourList readers

Right to Recall

In the run up to the general election, one of the biggest issues  – which Farage’s party will continue to hang on the coattails of, as they did in last months elections – is voter disenfranchisement. As part of a bid to make the public think they’re keen to empower citizens when it comes to the political process, the coalition introduced the Right to Recall bill in the Queen’s Speech last week.

Some MP’s aren’t best pleased with the Recall bill – but not for the reasons you might think. Zac Goldsmith has criticised the specifics of the bill, calling it “meaningless” because, he said, “the criteria are so narrow that it’s virtually meaningless. It will be impossible to recall anyone.” Goldsmith has found perhaps unlikely allies in campaigning organisation 38 Degrees, who also think the bill doesn’t go far enough.

On the other end of the spectrum, Conor Pope thinks that it’s a bad idea altogether, which will allow the wealthy and influential to abuse the system for political ends.

But what do LabourList readers think? An overwhelming majority (84%) support the concept. When you break this figure down, you find that 52% of readers think that recall should only be used if MP has committed wrong doing.While 32% voted in favour of constituents being able to recall their MPs at any point. And although most of you think that it’s a good idea, 10% of you agree with Conor and don’t support the idea at all.

In reality, Zac Goldsmith is right (not something I’d often say) – the bill doesn’t do much. Not only would the decision over an MPs fate rest with a committee of MPs (self-policing hasn’t really proved effective for the police now, has it?) but as it stands if MPs are jailed for more than one year they lose their job anyway. So, Right to Recall only applies to MPs who are found to have committed doing ‘serious wrongdoing’ and face jail time for less than a year. The likelihood, then, is that this won’t effect any MPs at all.

The battle for the working class?

Following Labour’s disappointing election results last month, it seems that there’s been no shortage of people coming forward to offer their tips on what Labour needs to do to over the next year to win the general election. In particular, over the past week, the Labour camp has been abuzz with talk about how to ‘win back’ working class voters.

This began with Rachel Reeves’ speech last week, in which she warned Labour are losing “traditional” voters to Ukip. The Fabian Society then entered the fray, reporting that “blue-collar” workers who would have once voted Labour are now migrating to Ukip. And Marcus Roberts, Deputy General Secretary of the Fabians, is calling for Labour to do something about it.

For the most part, LabourList readers agree with him. 67% think that Labour need to be doing “a lot more” to encourage working class voters to support them in the next general election, while 21% think that the party only need to be doing “a bit more “in this respect.

But this isn’t the case for all readers. In fact, 4% think that they party are doing enough and 2% think that they’re actually doing too much. Meanwhile,1% don’t think that it’s an issue at all and that the Labour party shouldn’t be spending any time on trying to appear to the working class.

This is part of a wider debate about the Labour party and it’s core values. There are a lot of people – not exclusively those who would identify as being working class – who are no longer convinced by mainstream party politics. Labour have a long way to go to convince them otherwise.

What would you want in a Labour Queen’s Speech?

After an underwhelming Queen’s Speech last week – only 11 bills were announced, the lowest number of bills introduced in at least twenty years – we got thinking about would be in a Labour Queen’s Speech. We’ve already got an idea of some of the policies that would take centre stage if Labour were to win in 2015 but what do Labour party supporters want a future Labour government to look like?

We got six LabourList contributors to suggest their own potential bills for a Labour Queen’s Speech. Of the six ideas floated, the proposal for a National investment bank bill got the most support, winning 30% of the vote. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, at a time when there are endless stories about corruption in the financial services, people rightly don’t have much trust in the banks.

The other bills related to money also gained a sizeable proportion of support – 17% of people thought the VAT reduction bill was the best idea, while 16% of people put their lot in with a bill that would abolish hospital car parking fees. Coming in a close 4th, 15% voted for a Transparency bill, in which every pound of public spending would be open to scrutiny.

Issues related to equality didn’t get as much support: a Gender and race equality Bill got 7% of the vote and the call for Quality, impartial and free advice Bill – which included repealing the unfair and damaging cuts to the legal aid budget –  got 5% of the vote.

10% of you didn’t support any of the ideas – if you’ve got your own suggestions, we’d love to hear them (post in the comments section below).

606 readers voted in the LabourList survey this week. Thanks to everyone who took part.