‘A reset that means something’

“Reset” is fast becoming one of the most overused words in politics. 

Every difficult moment seems to produce calls for one. Every disagreement is followed by promises of one. Too often, however, the word is used without the substance that should follow. 

And yet, for the Labour Party, this really is a moment when a reset is needed, and perhaps our last chance to make that word mean something. 

We say this not out of pessimism, but out of our deep commitment to the Labour Party and the need for this Labour government to be successful. Many of us have spent decades campaigning for Labour victories, organising locally and nationally, knocking on doors to argue for Labour values, and working tirelessly to support our communities. 

But Runcorn & Helsby, Caerphilly, and now Gorton & Denton all show us what is at stake: the risk of electoral collapse, and with it, the lost potential of a transformative Labour government. 

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Back in 2024, members across the country fought hard to elect a Labour government. We want and need this government to succeed – and the country needs us to succeed. But for that to happen, we need to change course. 

Our party has always been at its strongest when we remember what kind of movement we are. We are not just an electoral machine, regardless of how fundamental winning power is to our values. Ours is a democratic movement built on the collective effort of hundreds of thousands of members and supporters, our sister unions, and our socialist societies. Our strength has always come from that breadth, that multiplicity of voices, experiences, and ideas brought together in common endeavour. 

When Labour listens widely, it learns. When it welcomes challenges, it grows stronger. When members are respected, listened to and valued, our movement becomes more powerful. Those principles apply as much to governing as they do to the operation of our party. 

Politics – particularly in Westminster – can easily become closed-off, defensive and tribal. But the best Labour traditions are the opposite. At our best, we embody curiosity about alternative perspectives, kindness to one another and the people we have been elected to represent, humility in recognising we can be wrong and others right; and hope about the future we are trying to build. 

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These are the cornerstones of a healthy political culture. But right now they feel dismissed by our leaders. 

Curiosity helps us understand the country we seek to govern. Kindness shapes how we treat members and colleagues who give their time and energy to the movement. Humility reminds us that no one faction or politician has a monopoly on wisdom. And hope is what inspires people to join, campaign and vote for Labour in the first place. 

When those values are present, our party thrives. But when they are absent, when decisions come as top-down orders, when internal debate is treated as disloyalty, when members feel ignored rather than heard, there are consequences. Engagement falls. Membership declines. And we weaken the very movement that brought Labour back into government. 

That is why a broad-based combination of Labour members, parliamentarians, councillors, activists and National Executive Committee candidates have come together to sign the Reset the Labour Party statement. 

Not because we agree on everything, because we don’t. But because we agree on something fundamental: that Labour succeeds when we are broad, open and pluralist; when our party listens to its members; and when it reflects the diversity of views that exist across our movement. 

Sometimes, politics requires people who do not always see everything the same way to recognise that the moment demands common purpose. This is one of those times. 

The Labour Party has reached an important point in its journey. We have won power again after years in opposition. Now we must show that we can govern successfully and change lives while remaining true to the democratic spirit that defines our movement. 

A genuine reset would mean promoting a genuinely democratic, pluralistic culture in our party. McSweeney’s top-down politics of control have run their course, and Labour members, unions, affiliates, councillors and MPs must return to the driving seat. Fully democratic selections and respecting the decisions made at Annual Conference must be a priority. 

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It would also mean rediscovering the spirit of common endeavour that has defined the best of the Labour Party for more than a century – a commitment to fundamentally change the lives of working class people for the better, to tackle poverty and inequality, to end profit extraction from our public services, to cut emissions and restore our natural environment, and to rebuild trust in the moral fabric of government. 

If a “reset” is to mean anything, it must mean that. And this is the moment to prove it. It is time to reset the Labour Party.

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