English Labour Network asks leadership candidates to sign five pledges

The English Labour Network has written to every one of Labour’s leadership candidates urging them to support its five pledges.

Citing the fact that Labour last won the popular vote in England back in 2001, the organisation asked contenders to set out their views on how to improve the party’s standing.

The network said that the party “lost support particularly among those who identify as being more English than British” and said it is “essential” to reverse that trend.

The five pledges are:

1. Rebuild Labour’s coalition: Show the party that we must seek and value support across England equally amongst former Leavers and Remainers, older people and younger, voters from villages and towns as well as cities, graduates and young workers;
2. Instigate democratic reform: Support a constitutional convention, including a deliberative citizen’s assembly, to decide where and how English laws should be made and how power and resources can be devolved within England;
3. Change the way we govern: Break with Labour’s tradition of centralism, to put support for Labour’s local councillors at the centre of our strategy for renewal, and make the diffusion of power across England the way we will govern in the future;
4. Support inclusive Englishness: Encourage central government, local government and civic organisations to play an active role in supporting the development of an inclusive English identity open to all living in England; and
5. Call it England: Ensure that all policy, applying only to England names England in all our campaigning material and campaign messages.

Correspondence sent to each of those standing for leadership roles said: “Labour has not won the popular vote in England since 2001. Boris Johnson’s majority was won in constituencies where voters were more likely to see themselves as English than British.

“The same voters were the core of the vote to Leave the EU and too often feel they have no political power. England is the most centralised nation in Europe and, London aside, England was ignored in the constitutional changes of the last Labour government.”

Labour’s general election defeat in December saw the party lose seats in every English region outside of the capital.

The letter from the organisation stated: “There is no Labour route back to power without winning support amongst English voters. This must include a commitment to irreversible and democratic decentralisation within England, a willingness to speak to and about England as a nation, and taking practical steps to encourage the progressive, inclusive English identity that is already developing.”

The English Labour Network was launched in 2017 following the general election. Its stated aim is to be “for Labour in England” and “for England in Labour”.

The group supports the party in power in local authorities and campaigns for an English Labour manifesto, bringing together all policy specifically for England.

Founding supporters include the MPs Jon Cruddas, Sam Tarry, Liam Byrne, Shabana Mahmood and former secretary of state John Denham.