‘Where is the party for England?’

Our Labour government has many achievements of which we should be proud. The Renters Rights Act, rail renationalisation, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill—the list goes on. Our party has made a good start. And much of this legislation applies almost exclusively to England.

In the Labour Party, we do not often talk specifically about England when we mean England. Many domestic policy areas are devolved to governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Legislation like the Renters Rights Act applies exclusively to England, while rail renationalisation and the Bus Services Act mainly target England. Instead, we talk euphemistically of ‘Britain’ (England, Scotland and Wales) when we actually mean England. 

English patriotism

Millions of people across England call themselves English and identify as English. Not necessarily exclusively, but people in England make up around 85% of the population in the United Kingdom, holding other identities, too. When we talk of ‘diversity’ in Britain, the vast majority is, numerically, English diversity. Yet we do not explicitly lean into this.

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There are parties like Plaid in Wales and the SNP in Scotland which stand and speak exclusively to people in those countries. We have Welsh Labour and Scottish Labour to counter these. Political adversaries and our friends in Scottish and Welsh Labour lean proudly into their national identities. But we have no English Labour Party which leans into our proudly radical English traditions. England has no national party which is centre-left and speaks to the positive nature of Englishness, explicitly to English issues and talking up England, like they have in the devolved nations. 

I have often heard from people on the left that there is some inherent ‘problem’ with Englishness and England. But most people in England do not believe that you need to be born in England to call yourself English. And you certainly don’t need to be white. Believing that there is some ‘problem’ inherent in Englishness is contradictory for people who proudly see themselves as British, with 85% of the British population living in England. It also buys into far-right notions that seek to gatekeep Englishness. 

Racists and those on the far right will try to divide our communities and talk our country down, capitalising on problems they created, attempting to dominate the narrative on what it means to be English. These people are wrong.

An inclusive Englishness and a party for England would lean into our diversity, expounding a confident and progressive Englishness, drawing on our long history of democracy, expanded to include more people thanks to the work of radicals like the Chartists and Suffragettes over a century ago. More recently, that has included the visible work of the Windrush generation in rebuilding England alongside other working class people after 1945. Queer rights campaigners in the 1980s who supported the striking miners is further testament to our English strength and solidarity. There are many more examples and each will be unique and testament to the diversity of our Englishness.

To call yourself English is, at least partly, to live in England, to have a connection with the place—from Berwick to Cornwall and anywhere in between—which is something that we all have in common. England belongs to us all and England is a country for the many. It is our home.

Radical democratic reform

England is our country. England is also the most centralised country in all of Europe. Devolution to our friends in Scotland and Wales has been a huge advantage to them, improving their democracies and seeing peace in Ireland. By implication, English policy has been left to Westminster, without a clear delineation of English and British policy.

The government’s English Devolution Bill is a great start to improving democracy in England, as is lowering the voting age to 16. Nationalising England’s railways is a solid policy for England; locking up English water bosses when they pollute is further progress. More devolution for England will be good, but we need to go further, for example, by giving local authorities in England more power to raise their own levies to pay the bills.

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We also can’t risk a far-right government undoing any progress we make at the centre. We were locked out of power for fourteen years with no power to stop austerity. We can’t let that happen again. We need specifically English electoral institutions with national appeal and power over domestic policy (education, healthcare, etc—all solid Labour territory) with proportional representation, making it difficult for another government to uproot without consensus.

England needs a party which speaks specifically to it, with it and talks up our diversity unambiguously, telling our progressive English story and inspiring hope.

That party is Labour. 

Does Labour know it?

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