‘What is the Soft Left?’

As a party-right dominated Labour administration struggles to govern and falls in the polls, references to the Party’s ‘soft left’ have multiplied recently in the media. But exactly who is the soft left, what does it stand for and does it have anything relevant to say? Does it constitute a distinct alternative to Labour’s present leadership from the ‘Labour right’, and to the ‘hard left’ more closely related to Corbynism? 

Characterising the soft left is not easy: it has tended to be an amorphous group, often lacking definition, organisation and coherence. The soft left is not a faction, if by that we mean a cohesive and disciplined group with its own leadership, seeking to advance its programme through organised-political activity. Such groups have existed on the soft left, including the Labour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC), Compass in its pre-2011 articulation, Open Labour and, most recently, Mainstream, and the resurrected Tribune Group of MPs. The soft left per se is better understood as a political space, inhabited by people who share certain common values and ways of looking at the world but may differ over specific policies and goals, or at least the priority given to them. For example, some place much heavier emphasis on the need for constitutional reform and a wider redistribution of power (we can call them the ‘Democratic Left’) than others whose overriding preoccupation is with economic and social changes and who question the need for a deep democratic change (we can call this stance ‘Left Labourism’). 

READ MORE: ‘The soft left sets out its stall’

The Labour Left has always been fissiparous, diverse in outlook and prone to internal tensions. But the split between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ left that originated in the early 1980s has proved unusually enduring. Although it was a response to the particular conditions of the time, the split persisted because the division reflected major differences in outlook, strategy and party organisation. 

The soft left is separate from both the hard left and the right with its own ideological profile defined by the principles of equality, collectivism and pluralism. The soft left envisages a socialised variant of capitalism in which the state plays a more proactive and energetic role in both stimulating the economy and promoting the common good. It sees the importance of working closely with business but challenges the excessively powerful role it now plays in the determination of many government policies. It adopts a posture of ‘radical pragmatism’, accepting that the party’s reforming zeal must be tempered by economic and electoral realities but insisting it should never be relinquished. It is realistic in appreciating the constraints on government but emphasises the need for a clear sense of ideological direction and value-based policies. 

The soft left is fully aware that the Labour government faces multiple challenges: a stagnant economy, obsolescent public services, an electorate which has lost faith in established political parties and politicians, with many being seduced by the often-toxic slogans peddled by Reform. It acknowledges the progress the government has already made in alleviating poverty and distress, in renewing – to some extent – exhausted public services, in boosting output from renewable energy sources and, most notably of all, in strengthening collective and individual rights at work. But it fears that these efforts are being stymied by the modesty of Labour’s critique of the established order, its fear of affronting the powerful and the wealthy, and by the absence of an overarching narrative and a vision that has equality, collectivism and pluralism at its heart. 

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With the marginalisation of the hard left, now divided between remnants in Labour, Your Party and the Greens and the abject failure of Starmer’s odd concoction of Blairism pickled with the old Labour right, now would be a good time to look at the realignment of the left in Labour (and indeed within the progressive camp more generally). 

Many both within and outside the party could rally behind a new Democratic Left, committed to redistributing wealth, ownership and democracy from the few to the many; a new political project offering an alternative to the present timid, dull and drifting leadership. 

One thing is clear: the Starmer government is in crisis, with a real possibility that at the next election Labour may lose hundreds of seats and the nightmare of a Reform government led by Nigel Farage may materialise. Something has to change. The present Labour leadership may like to reflect on the observation by the soft left politician Bryan Gould a number of 

years ago: ‘If there is one incontrovertible lesson to be learned, it is that a left politics that is disconnected from principle and analysis will lead to failure and defeat’. 

This article features edited excerpts from ‘What is the Soft Left?’, a new publication by Compass

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