A response to Tristram Hunt: your decision to vote “Anyone But Corbyn” doesn’t add up

This is an open letter written by Labour Party members from five constituencies in and neighbouring Stoke on Trent. The names of the signatories from each constituency are listed below. Tristram Hunt this weekend argued on LabourList that “debate must be allowed to flourish” and has confirmed that he has responded to this letter in private.

Dear Tristram Hunt MP,

It was with some dismay that many members of the Labour Party in Stoke on Trent read your “open letter” to members, dated 13th August 2015, in which you explain your decision to vote “Anyone But Corbyn” in the leadership election.

Your assertion that the Attlee government combined a policy of “fiscal austerity” with the creation of the Welfare State does not bear serious scrutiny – you have ignored the fact that cuts to some government spending was combined with huge investment in the creation of the NHS, a major housebuilding programme, and the establishment of the modern welfare state. All of this was funded by government borrowing and the issuance of bonds alongside the “fiscal austerity” you seem to hold in such high esteem. By focusing exclusively on one aspect of this period, you present what we consider to be a very partial and misleading representation of this proud moment in our Party’s history.

You then accept that, “whilst this does not invalidate Jeremy’s economic argument in and of itself, it does show that prudence is an important component of Labour’s broader political tradition.” Indeed. Prudence with public finances has always been an important component of Labour’s broader political tradition. It is this central tenet which informs the investment proposals put forward by the Corbyn campaign, and which form the basis for a credible, investment-led approach to tackling the current account deficit. This approach has the support of Nobel-prize-winning economists across the world.

As grassroots members who have spent the last 5 years arguing for such a policy, we find it extremely disheartening that senior Labour Party figures such as yourself are so ready to fold in the face of the economic illiteracy that is summed up as “austerity”, rather than making the case for a real economic alternative. There is a reason Thatcherite economic policies were once described as “voodoo economics”.

You move on to suggest that Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t have the necessary appetite to create a modern welfare settlement in the face of “public confidence in the welfare state’s fairness…[being] dangerously low”. We would suggest that the parlous state of public confidence in the welfare state is a direct result of the constant media assault on people in receipt of Social Security payments, an assault for which senior Labour Party figures have to shoulder some of the blame. Referring to Social Security as “welfare”, or even worse, “benefits” whilst simultaneously playing along with right-wing myths about the system, has allowed a dangerous shift in the paradigm through which the public views such issues. This has allowed the Conservatives to say it’s economically necessary to roll back the welfare state, a project that in reality it has been just waiting to complete ever since it was established in the post-war era. It seems that only the left of the Labour Party is interested in challenging these myths, and in fulfilling that most important of roles: to educate people about the reality.

You will never be more credible than the Conservatives when it comes to attacking the unfortunate, the weak, and the helpless. That’s not the way that Labour wins a mandate to govern. Far from attacking Jeremy and the left for “attempting to use benefits to solve every social justice problem”, perhaps some honesty is called for, Tristram – your prescription of “higher wages, social investment and world class public services” is exactly what Jeremy proposes, but one would never know that from your characterisation.

A further assertion you put forward is that it now seems “unfashionable” for the Labour movement to aspire to government, due to the performance of the Blair/Brown government. Again we must disagree. Members on the left of the Party all agree on many welcome achievements from the last Labour government, from the national minimum wage act to “the biggest sustained period of public service investment this country has ever seen”.

You claim: “On the campaign trail it felt far more like a profound, cultural collapse than in 2010 and I am sure we all endured at least one heart-wrenching moments when another Labour voter said “I’ve always voted Labour, but not this time” on the doorstep.” This is also a misrepresentation of the situation faced by so many Labour activists across our region and the country – the cultural collapse predates 2010 and has been an accelerating process, not a new one. We lost the trust of many of our voters because of the debacle of the Iraq war and we lost more by parroting Conservative half-truths about the economy, immigration and Social Security. By failing to put forward a fundamentally different and credible vision of society, we lost the trust of many millions of voters who need a Labour government to stand up for them.

As grassroots Labour members, activists and councillors we appeal for you to join with us in rebuilding the mass social movement which will enable Labour to win back power for the many, and which will reinvigorate the intellectual base from which our ideas of social justice come. This is a project which should involve all philosophical traditions within the Party, with the exclusion of none. We call on you to offer every support to the new Labour leader, whoever that may be, and to respect their democratic mandate for change.

Yours,
Chris Spence (Newcastle under Lyme CLP)
Ruth Wright (Newcastle under Lyme CLP)
Desiree Elliott (Stoke on Trent South CLP)
Joe McCluskey (Stoke on Trent South CLP)
Ruth Rosenau (Stoke on Trent South CLP)
Chris Robinson (Stoke on Trent South CLP)
Andrew Buttress (Stoke on Trent Central CLP)
James Bradbury (Stoke on Trent Central CLP)
Duncan Carson (Stoke on Trent Central CLP)
Steve Jones (Stoke on Trent Central CLP)
Clare White (Stoke on Trent North CLP)
Tom Siegertsz (Stoke on Trent North CLP)
Gill Warrilow (Staffordshire Moorlands CLP)