John Denham launches new initiative to win England for Labour

Labour will need to win a majority in England with a larger swing than it won in 1997 to return to power, according to new research published on LabourList.

The unlikeliness of unseating the SNP in Scotland the reduction of the number of constituencies in Wales means Labour must win seats it has never won before, such as Basingstoke, Portsmouth South and Canterbury, with a swing of nearly 10% to gain an overall majority in 2020.

The calculation of the party’s election challenge by the political analyst Lewis Baston is part of a new initiative coordinated by the former cabinet minister, John Denham, to examine how Labour should respond to the electoral, social and political challenges of England.

“Labour has to win a majority in England, if it is going to decide English policy and to have any chance of forming a UK government. It has to do this at a time when English identity, English issues and the future of England are becoming more important to key sectors of the electorate,” Denham told LabourList.

He believes that Labour needs to forge a new progressive patriotism if it is not to be undermined by the rise of what he calls national identity politics, which is happening across Europe and damaging many of the continent’s established social democratic parties electorally.

And he argues, in an article to be published on LabourList this week, that the party needs to re-establish the contributory principle in the social security system and return to protecting national ownership as part of its economic platform.

Denham is organising a series of seminars and online discussions about Englishness with a small editorial group, which includes Professor Mike Kenny of Queen Mary University, the columnist and writer Mary Riddell and Jonathan Rutherford, who was a member of the Independent Inquiry into why Labour lost and worked on the party’s policy review under Ed Miliband.