What should we hope for from the NPF? That a bold, radical manifesto remains on the table

Today nearly two hundred delegates arrive at a conference centre/hotel on the edge of Milton Keynes to begin Labour’s “final stage” meeting of the National Policy Forum(NPF). It’s possible to both understate and overstate the significance of this weekend. On one hand, this is the biggest weekend in the party’s calendar when it comes to policy. The level of boldness and radicalism that we see coming out of Milton Keynes will define the kind of campaign Labour wants to run in the year ahead, the kind of manifesto we’ll put before the British people and the kind of government Labour might be from next year onwards. However, those expecting a list of huge manifesto pledges to come out of this weekend will be disappointed – whilst Labour’s direction of travel on issues such as housing, welfare, health, social care, wages and of course rail – might be clear by lunchtime on Sunday, don’t expect the whole manifesto or the big pledges just yet.

There’s nearly a whole year until election day. The Labour Party isn’t going to blow its whole policy announcement schedule over a single weekend at a behind closed doors meeting in Milton Keynes.

The aim of this weekend should be that radical plans and a “big offer” are still possible – that the easier, smaller, less ambitious road hasn’t been taken to shut down the chance of a bigger offer to come.

This morning Angela Eagle, the party’s NPF Chair, will be speaking to delegates. And – pleasingly – she’ll be banging the drum for a radical manifesto. Look to spirit and ambition of 1945, she’ll call for a “A radical manifesto which transforms our society”, and say that “This isn’t going to be a manifesto from the centre, built on the command and control politics of the past” – to which the obvious riposte is, prove it. 

Labour already has elements of a policy agenda which could be considered at the very least different and potentially bold too – especially around devolution and prevention – this weekend the NPF needs to show that as a party we have the potential to go further, and be the kind of party that changes Britain and changes lives. In truth, we must show that we can answer the “Why should I bother to vote Labour?” question. Because if what comes out of this weekend is a series of quietly closed down policy debates, small promises that please neither the bold nor the conservative and an inability to grasp the depth and breadth of the challenges Labour faces, then there’s probably not enough time to turn things around by election day. We cannot swim in the shallow end of the political pool – this weekend will show how far Miliband and the wider party are willing to go in pursuit not only of victory, but also of a better Britain.

Unfortunately, the NPF meeting is a closed one (which means LabourList can’t report directly from inside the event in Milton Keynes). However, starting later today and running all weekend, we will be running an NPF liveblog – including Miliband’s keynote speech tomorrow morning. If you’re an the NPF and you want to let us know what’s going on, you can contact us (anonymously) by emailing [email protected]. Alternatively, we’ll be using the hashtag #labnpf on Twitter, so if you’re there – let us know what your take is, and we’ll include the best tweets in our liveblog.