Labour cannot play Reform’s game – we must be bolder and truly transformative

Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy leader has shaken the Labour Party. Keir Starmer’s swift reshuffle followed, and we will soon see an election for a new deputy leader. But let us be honest –  this contest is not simply about personalities or factional alignments – it is a proxy for the bigger question facing our party. What is Labour for? What kind of country do we want to build?

We cannot duck these questions. Labour needed a reset even before this crisis. Our victory in 2024 was not borne out of surging enthusiasm for our programme, but because the right was fatally divided. The Conservatives collapsed under the weight of their own incompetence, and Reform drained away a large share of their support. We did not win because millions were inspired by Labour’s vision. We won because the other side imploded.

A fragile foundation for government

That is a fragile foundation for government. And the cracks are already showing. We are trailing Reform in the polls. Labour voters are drifting towards the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. New parties of the left are sprouting in towns and cities where people feel unrepresented. The old Labour–Tory tribalism is gone. Both parties look too centrist, too managerial, too technocratic. And above all – too uninspiring.

READ MORE: ‘Labour must get the deputy leadership election right – or risk losing its heart’ NEC member Catherine Arnold

Meanwhile, Reform offer simple slogans that do not solve problems but at least sound like answers. Labour has been too timid in challenging them. Worse still, on migration we have been following their script rather than setting our own agenda. This is a mistake. It concedes the terrain of debate to Nigel Farage and his ilk, and it distracts from the real crises shaping people’s lives.

Let’s be clear – the stagnation in pay packets, the shortage of affordable homes, the rise in insecure jobs – none of these were caused by migrants. They are the direct consequences of Conservative decisions, from austerity budgets to deregulated labour markets to cuts in housing programmes. Reform’s solutions won’t put an extra pound in a nurse’s wage or build a single council home. And if Labour sounds as if it agrees with Reform’s analysis, people will quite reasonably ask – what is the point of Labour?

Issues that actually define people’s daily lives.

We should be talking instead about the issues that actually define people’s daily lives. Wages that don’t stretch far enough. Social security payments that have withered away. The insecurity of zero-hours contracts and fire-and-rehire. Council services stripped bare by a decade and a half of cuts. The lack of secure, affordable housing. Childcare that costs more than rent. Public transport that is expensive, unreliable, or simply non-existent. Schools and hospitals overstretched, crying out for funding and modernisation.

To be fair, this government has made some positive moves. The public sector pay settlements helped bring an end to waves of industrial action. The Employment Rights Bill is a start in rebalancing the world of work. The Rail Passenger Ownership Bill opens the door to better, cheaper train services. The Renters’ Rights Bill will give tenants more security. The pledge of a new generation of affordable housing is welcome.

But these steps are not enough. They do not yet match the scale of the task ahead – undoing 14 years of Conservative austerity and creating a fairer, greener, more secure future.

Labour must lift its sights

In my constituency, Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, the reality is stark. Too many of my constituents still live in poverty. Families wait months for temporary accommodation. Huge developments at Teesworks generate wealth – but not enough local people see the benefits. We waited eight years for a new secondary school. Our brilliant hospital is under-resourced and short of beds. Our railways, 200 years after they were born in this region, still lack electrification. Our buses fail to get people where they need to go. This is not just Middlesbrough’s story – it is Britain’s story.

So Labour must lift its sights. We need to be more transformative, not less. And that begins with rejecting the obsession with asylum hotels and the relentless scapegoating of migrants. This is Farage’s agenda, not ours. It dehumanises people whose only “crime” is seeking a better life, whether by working hard and paying taxes or by fleeing war and persecution. And it diverts us from our true task – transforming lives for the better.

Fairly tax the vast fortunes of a few so we can fund services for the many

Instead, Labour must go after inequality with seriousness. Today, 50 families in Britain hold as much wealth as the poorest half of the country. That is not inevitable; it is the result of political choices. Fairly tax the vast fortunes of a few so we can fund services for the many.

We must end the dogma of outsourcing and privatisation. For decades, public services have been hollowed out by profiteering, consultants, and shareholders’ dividends. Labour should bring services back into public hands and rebuild them for people, not profit.

We must deliver a new wave of council housing – not just affordable housing, but genuinely secure, publicly owned homes. We cannot repeat the New Labour mistake of relying on private finance initiatives that leave us indebted while corporations extract profit. Councils must be empowered and funded to build.

And on the world stage, Britain must rediscover moral clarity. If a regime is starving civilians, bombing hospitals, or murdering aid workers, we should say so plainly. We should not arm them, not trade with them, not excuse them. We should use every tool available to stop violence and save lives. This is not radical; it is the bare minimum people expect from a country that still talks of its values.

Change people can feel

This is what Labour was elected to do – to make life fairer, more secure, and more hopeful. But we will not achieve that by imitating the right or recycling the playbook of the 2000s. The country has moved on. People are tired of tinkering at the edges. They want change they can feel – in their wages, their homes, their services, their communities.

Angela Rayner’s resignation should be a wake-up call, not just a reshuffling of chairs. If we waste this moment, if we duck the hard choices, Labour risks becoming irrelevant. But if we are bold, if we set the agenda rather than follow it, then we can make this decade a transformative one for Britain.

That is the choice before us. And the time to choose is now.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook.

• SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
• SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
• DONATE: If you value our work, please chip in a few pounds a week and become one of our supporters, helping sustain and expand our coverage.
• PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
• ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].