Labour has given up ownership on the business agenda, yesterday we gave up ground on the anti poverty agenda too

 Yesterday’s abstention on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill was a watershed moment for the Labour Party.

The party formed from the idea that every citizen deserves a basic dignity of life and that being poor is not a moral failing to be ‘punished’ has somehow been swept far away from home on the issue of social security.

‘It’s a trap’ is the most common cry from those saying that we must go along with one of the most brazen anti-poor agendas in a generation. The Welfare Reform and Work Bill repeals most of the Child Poverty Act, abandons poverty-reduction targets and proposes new measures of poverty that do not include income. It also breaks the link between what families need to live on and benefit entitlement, meaning that families could be left without enough money to cover their most basic of needs.

Jeremy Corbyn was the only leadership candidate to oppose the bill yesterday, which will no doubt be a great boost for his campaign. But where is the voice of those in the party who refuse to support illogical and immoral policies that exacerbate poverty but who also refuse to partake in a party-splitting exercise that sees our members and activists pulled to both ends of the political spectrum within the party?

When did we decide that supporting policies that make life tougher for people on low incomes was centrist and increased our chances of electoral success? When did we decide that being pro business and enterprise was ground that we should concede to the Conservatives?

I know many Labour colleagues who refuse to buy into the pigeonholing tribalism that seems to be engulfing the party that I have volunteered and worked for most of my life.

Last year Labour was re-elected to Brent Council on a hugely increased majority from 40 to 56 Councillors. We were elected on a clear pro business, anti poverty manifesto. It never dawned on most of us that the Labour Party would be tearing itself to shreds by setting these two agendas against each other by polarising the entire debate just a year later.

After our election victory, the Brent Labour administration decided to set up a new cabinet portfolio ‘Employment and Skills’ which combined the welfare, benefits and poverty agendas with business, skills and enterprise. This is because all of these agendas are clearly inextricably linked.

Being Cabinet Member for Employment and Skills means meeting with some of the borough’s largest employers in the morning to discuss apprenticeship, employment, union and living wage issues and then spending the afternoon in the customer service centre speaking to people impacted by homelessness, the bedroom tax and struggling with debt.

We need inward investment from businesses promising decent and sustainable employment to residents. We must listen to business and work collaboratively with them to tackle poverty within their workforce, not smack them about with legislation, but rather create meaningful incentives and support that shows that we understand the issues that they face. In April this year Brent became the first council in the UK to offer business rate discounts to living wage employers; a pro business policy to help tackle poverty.

It pained me to see the Labour Party gradually concede ground on the business agenda to the Conservative party but after yesterday’s vote it seems that we have now also conceded the issue of poverty too.

We must bring both these agendas back to where they belong, back to a Labour Party that believes in a decent safety net for every citizen and is a strong and unashamed voice for those in poverty but also a Party that supports economic investment, enterprise and business and collaborates with businesses to find solutions to some of the biggest social issues that we face.

These ideas are not incompatible or awkward and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Labour is at it’s strongest when we refuse to be pulled to the polar extremes and when we refuse to concede ground to our opponents on the big issues.

It’s not too late. We can resist the temptation to move further to the margins of our own party and get bogged down in trying to prove each other wrong. Let’s start today to confidently reclaim political ground on the issues that impact our economy and the poorest people in society.

Cllr Roxanne Mashari is Cabinet Member for Employment & Skills at Brent Council