If the Labour leadership listens, it can learn from the party in local government

It is right that local government has featured prominently in the Labour leadership debate. All four candidates are courting councillors as a constituency that matters, with Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall all laying out their stalls for local government in a series of pitches the LGA Labour Group has published today. I was struck by how much consensus there was between the four contenders at the local government hustings held in Harrogate a month ago. They agreed there on four important things:

• in the past, we have been too centralist and controlling as a country and a party, hollowing out local democracy, and that Westminster-centric distrust of local government has to end;

• Labour parliamentarians need to show councillors – the public face of the party in many parts of the country – recognition and respect, including through a stronger voice in Shadow Cabinet and on the National Executive Committee;

• we can do more on devolution, not just in our major cities, including on fiscal policy, but we must not ape the Tory tactic of devolving the axe to localise the blame; and

• we must all stand up for fair council funding, based on need.

What we need the next Leader of the Labour Party to understand is that it is in local government over the next five years that Labour will have power and can make a difference in our communities. What Labour is doing in local government therefore needs to be at the heart of the party’s renewal. Not only are our 120+ Labour-led councils proving that we can put our values into practice while being responsible with people’s money, but our over 6,000 Labour councillors have the ability to influence politics and public opinion in nearly all the marginal parliamentary seats that we need to win in 2020.

There are more tough times ahead though for councils. The Chancellor has already indicated that, having cut local authorities’ funding by 40 per cent since 2010, a further 40 per cent cut is heading our way in November’s spending review. Important local services that people rely on will have to be cut. If we did inherit any fat, there is none left now, and the low-hanging fruit has all gone. Any organisation that has its budget cut by two-thirds in the space of a decade is bound to struggle to maintain all its services. So, we need Labour MPs to be clear who the enemy is – the Conservative government – and attack them, as an effective Opposition, rather than criticise Labour councils for the difficult decisions they will have to make to decommission services as an ideologically driven government scales back the state.

In the 1980s, the ‘Loony Left’ of Labour in local government was deemed an embarrassment by the party. We have come a long way since then. Local government is now where much of the party’s innovation takes place and its talent can be found. If anything, right now it is the Parliamentary Labour Party who need to get their act together, while Labour councils up and down the land are fighting the Tories and getting on with the job. For example, it is Labour councils that pick up the pieces when people fall through our country’s already threadbare safety net, so we ought to be able to expect better from our colleagues in parliament than the shambles we saw recently over the Welfare Bill.

Those who have called for a mature and measured debate around the party’s leadership contest are right. “She’s a Tory”, “He’s a Trot” slanging matches are the stuff of the playground and make us look infantile in the eyes of the British public who we claim to want to serve. We can now use the summer break to regroup, reflecting on our priorities for tackling the Tories over the five years of Conservative government that lie ahead. With a majority of just twelve, Cameron can be beaten on critical issues, but only if we can pull together as a party and can persuade others of our progressive case. We need to show some optimism for the future and get our self-confidence back. There are big battles to fight, including over social housing, trade unions, the United Kingdom and Europe. Labour local government will be at the forefront of those battles. Alongside us, we need our representatives in parliament not just to get angry but to get organised.

Cllr Jim McMahon is Leader of Oldham Council and Leader of Labour in Local Government