‘Dear Labour’

“Dear Labour”,

Every major football tournament begins the same way: with hope. Hope that this time might be different. Hope that, together, we might achieve something special. For a few weeks, millions of us buy into the same dream. ‘Three lions on the shirt.’ ‘You’ve got to hold and give, but do it at the right time.’

It’s hard to say the same of politics. When was the last time a politician made the vast majority of us feel that kind of optimism? The last time our party, or our country, rallied around a shared vision of where we were going? Some might say 2024 – but even then, it wasn’t really the case that our nation, or if we’re honest, our party, felt totally united.

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I have found myself thinking about this recently because I have been watching the BBC’s new series, Dear England. At its heart, it is not really a programme about football. It is a programme about leadership, culture and national identity.

When Gareth Southgate took the England job, he inherited more than a football team. He inherited decades of disappointment, cynicism and division. Players arrived at England camps carrying their club rivalries with them. The shirt seemed to weigh heavier with every tournament. The expectation was immense, but belief was in short supply.

Southgate’s response was not to promise immediate success. In fact, quite the opposite. Rather than demand victory in Russia 2018, he asked his players to think about Qatar 2022. He understood that meaningful change required a long-term vision that people could buy into. He brought in expertise to improve the culture and psychology of the squad. He sought to build a team rather than a collection of talented individuals. Most importantly, he wanted people to smile again.

That may sound simplistic, but it matters. People support causes, institutions and nations when they feel part of something bigger than themselves. Southgate understood that football could be about more than football. His famous letter to England spoke directly to a country wrestling with division and uncertainty as we attempt to answer questions about who we are. He recognised that leadership requires more than administration. It requires connection.

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No one can seriously argue that he failed to make progress. England reached a World Cup semi-final, and two European Championship finals. Yet because the ultimate prize remained elusive, many concluded that the project itself had failed. In the end, he was hounded out despite leaving English football in a far healthier place than he found it.

There is a lesson in that for Labour.

We came to government promising change. But change is not simply a list of policies. It is not just a new generation of front bench players either. It is a story people can see themselves in. It is a destination people understand. It is a sense that tomorrow can be better than today.

At times, Labour feels like England before Southgate. Too many of us remain attached to our factions, our traditions and our internal rivalries. We organise ourselves into camps and then wonder why we struggle to inspire people beyond them. We spend so much time fiercely debating among ourselves from dogmatic positions that we have forgotten how to try and compromise in order to move forward. The nation does not care about Labour’s internal politics. So, as we focus inward, we do not offer them any vision they can truly buy into.

Meanwhile, the country faces challenges every bit as serious as those Southgate wrote about. Trust is fragile. Communities feel disconnected. Populists and the far right offer easy answers to difficult questions. Their solutions are hollow, but their appeal grows when our politics appears uncertain of itself.

Our responsibility is not simply to oppose them. It is to offer something better. A vision of Britain that people want to belong to. A sense of common purpose that can bring us together despite our differences. A long-term project that asks people to believe once again.

That requires difficult conversations. It requires honesty about what is and is not working. It requires us to put the team, and the nation before ourselves.

Perhaps most difficult of all, we must hold the mirror up to ourselves and address the vast number of elephants that continue to sit in our many rooms.

I truly believe the only job in Britain remotely comparable to being Prime Minister is being England manager. Both demand leadership under relentless scrutiny. Both require the ability to unite people who do not naturally agree. Both carry the heavy hopes of a nation on their shoulders.

Southgate understood that before people can achieve together, they must first believe together.

Dear Labour, perhaps that is where we should start.  

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