‘The narrative must outweigh the negative’

I would like nothing more than to focus on all the good things Labour is doing. The Employment Rights Act; the Warm Homes Plan; the Child Poverty Strategy; the strategy to tackle violence against women and girls; building social housing; Great British Energy; Great British Railways; scrapping the two child benefit cap.

I want to tell you what a great speech Keir Starmer made yesterday where he talked about Pride in Place and raised his eyes to the horizon beyond this vital project to give one of the clearest and best articulations of what this government’s agenda is that I have heard for some time. It was a speech that genuinely moved me. It reminded me once again of why having a Labour government matters.

It is our job at LabourList to bring you the good news about Labour delivering in office and we take great pride in doing it.

READ MORE:‘The Labour ecosystem is thriving – and has the ideas that can ensure the government does too’

But the only reason we can be trusted when we report on the good that Labour is doing in government is that we are also clear-eyed when things are not good. When things are bad we have to say so.

Not out of a sense of journalistic muckraking or political troublemaking. Not because we are following the herd or want to be in with the cool kids.

We do so because we owe it to the government and party we support and the readers who support us to be honest. It is our job to report on what the Party is talking about, what those covering the party are talking about and what we, the Labour members and activists who also work at LabourList are talking about.

It is our job to report on, analyse and aid understanding of the Labour Party. That means all aspects of it.

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So we have to talk about the first half of that speech – an apology to the victims of Epstein who were once again sidelined and ignored by those in power. We have to cover the horrific actions of Peter Mandelson and the ongoing fallout from them. We have to ask the questions everyone is asking about the judgement of those who endangered their own project by being cavalier about what was already known about Mandelson and too willing to take a very risky bet there was nothing more to come. We have to talk about the culture that allowed that risk to be downplayed.

Because when Keir Starmer says “​​no one is above accountability” that includes his accountability to Labour members – from MPs to Councillors to lowly leaflet deliverer like myself. And LabourList is a part of that accountability.

There are so many things in terms of policy that the government is getting right. There is so much being done that will change lives in the immediate and long term. We want to be able to dedicate our time to talking about them. But we can only do that if the mistakes stop overshadowing the achievements. We can only do that if the narrative becomes more powerful than the negative.

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We will continue to write about the good the government is doing. We will continue to report on the hard work of Labour politicians and campaigners at all levels up and down the country.

And you can trust that we mean it because we do not look away from the hard truths. However much we wish we could.

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