‘Mainstream is here to reconnect Labour with its values’

One year into Labour’s return to government, the country feels like it’s standing still. The chaos of the Conservative years has ended, but the energy and hope that should have followed is yet to appear.

Promises of “change” have been met with caution; opportunities for reform have been treated like risks to be managed, not chances to be seized. Voters didn’t choose Labour just to steady the ship, they chose us to chart a new course.

The past 14 months have seen some positive action: GB Energy, the first moves to renationalise our railways, the Employment Rights Bill. But missteps have piled up, cutting against our party’s values and moral purpose.

Welfare reforms threatened to plunge thousands of disabled people into poverty. The government has responded timidly to the genocide in Gaza. It has dithered on ending the cruel two-child benefit limit. Opportunities to act boldly – taxing wealth, pioneering modern, participatory forms of public ownership for our crumbling water system, reforming our rotten voting system – have been ignored, despite clear support amongst the public.

These missteps and missed opportunities reflect a government struggling for vision and strategy, and increasingly out of step with both its own grassroots, its MPs, councillors and mayors, and the country it was elected to serve. Unless the government rediscovers the values on which our party was founded, values that the country is crying out for, our troubles will only deepen.

‘The vast majority of our movement share public’s hunger for meaningful change’

This is why Labour members of Compass like me, with the support of the Open Labour National Committee and colleagues from across the party, have launched Mainstream. Mainstream exists to ensure that Labour hears and heeds the voices of its radical realists: the vast majority of our movement who share the public’s hunger for meaningful change. Radical because we know that tinkering around the edges won’t suffice. Realist because we are committed to doing the hard work of translating our values into a feasible programme that can be brought to life.

Mainstream will provide a home for these voices. It will amplify them, organise them, and help Labour to offer Britain a popular, principled, and practical left politics: matching the urgent need for change with the vision, programme, and policies capable of delivering it. It will be a member-led network that will foster discussion and debate, work to ensure that our party is internally democratic and representative, and campaign on key economic, social, democratic and environmental issues.

READ MORE: TUC general secretary ‘confident not complacent’ over Employment Rights Bill

‘Unless we change course, Britain could be the next victim of the populist right’

History shows what can be achieved when Labour listens to its radical realists. We built the NHS and the welfare state from the rubble of war. We expanded civil rights, decentralised power, created protections for workers, invested in public services, and passed landmark legislation on human rights and climate. Those achievements weren’t accidents. They came from a Labour Party that believed in its transformative potential and had the courage to act.

It is this ambitious but pragmatic Labour tradition that Mainstream will renew and that the country deserves today. As Britain stands at a crossroads, with the populist right determined to drag us into division and decay, doing so is urgent. If we respond with managerial caution, however well-intentioned it may be, we risk ceding hope to those who would abuse it.

Britain doesn’t have to be the next victim of the populist right. But unless we change course, it might be. In poll after poll, Reform UK’s popularity rises while Labour’s falters. And soon, we’ll be challenged not just from the right, but by new energy from the left.

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‘There is a democratic socialist alternative’

The task now is to show that there is a democratic socialist alternative, not just in values but in action. For Mainstream, this means offering the country a left politics that is both highly ambitious and achievable. It means putting equity and justice at the heart of everything Labour does. It means rejecting an economy built on inequality and environmental destruction, and building one that serves the many. It means fighting for public services that meet communities’ needs, inspire pride, and flourish through long-term investment and the active participation of workers and citizens.

It also means standing for the human rights and dignity of every person, defending liberty, protest, and social protection at home and abroad, alongside a foreign policy rooted in peace and the rule of international law. It means remaking our broken democracy, dispersing power as widely and deeply as possible through electoral reform, ambitious forms of devolution and novel forms of participation. It means forging cross-class alliances, working with social movements, and building a national community that truly belongs to all its people.

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None of this will be easy. Reconnecting Labour with its Mainstream, with the radical realism that has always driven Britain’s transformation, means believing that the country will reward courage. And it requires Labour to be open and inclusive, to draw upon the wisdom, talents and energy of all our members and supporters to build a strong, broad-based movement.

Mainstream is here to help Labour do that: to develop and champion the vision, values, policy, and strategy that can transform our country and take on the populist right. We are part of Labour’s living tradition: ambitious for Britain, loyal to our movement, and impatient for change. We will work with party members, MPs, mayors, councillors, trade unions, campaigners, and communities to turn hope into a credible programme and vision.

Politics moves when people move. So if you share our optimism about a better Britain and Labour’s ability to bring it about, join us. Together, we can unlock our party’s transformative potential and shape a future worthy of the country we love.

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