‘Keir Starmer rebuilt the purpose of Labour, now Andy Burnham must rebuild the spirit of Britain’

In 2018, the year I first came to work in Parliament, Britain was staring into a Brexit abyss, and Labour was staring down the barrel. Blind spots on antisemitism, national security and Brexit had left my party’s Hard Left leadership sleepwalking towards the electoral humiliation that would come to pass the following December.

For that reason Stephen Kinnock and I published a policy book – with chapters trailed on LabourList – setting out how our party must rediscover the true ‘Purpose of Labour’ and rebuild the broken ‘Spirit of Britain’. It included some superb policy recommendations from authors including MPs Anna Turley, Dan Jarvis, Justin Madders, Steve Reed and Emma Reynolds – spanning ‘levelling up’, modern manufacturing, life-long education, devolving power, and fixing social care and housing.

But crucially it also set out six ‘seismic shifts’ that Labour would need to make in its political philosophy to win back public support and transform into a serious government-in-waiting.

Keir Starmer’s departure from Downing Street offers an opportunity to reflect to what extent he has managed to deliver these six shifts.

And taking each in turn, it seems pretty clear that Starmer made a substantial impact in re-shaping Labour’s guiding principles.

1. Patriotism is not a dirty word: it underpins both internationalism and social democracy.

“Patriotism is the Labour value of solidarity at national level”, we wrote in 2018. “Our biggest successes in 1945 and 1997 were wrapped in the flag and national renewal […] Labour’s economic strategy needs a healthy dose of patriotism, with support for our primary industries.”

Starmer certainly wrapped himself in the flag, but progress here has never been solely a matter of presentation. Rachel Reeves’ ‘Securonomics’ – the idea that ‘it matters where things are made and built’ – has successfully shifted Labour orthodoxy away from unfettered free trade towards domestic procurement and incentivising investment at home; from the Defence Investment Plan to Invest 2035 industrial Strategy.

Amongst the party faithful there has clearly been a mood shift; the idea that a Labour leader should love the country they wish to lead now feels uncontroversial, perhaps even blindingly obvious to many.

READ MORE: ‘While leaders change, Labour endures’

The country may need a bit more convincing, as challenges around grooming gangs and illegal immigration persist. But Andy Burnham will start from a stronger position than Starmer did – from which he will presumably wish to develop that sacred national story that has been so conspicuous in its absence.

2. An active state, working with business, must drive a new kind of growth

Before Starmer took the reins it was clear that Labour needed a new ‘third way’ on business – an active state, partnering with the private sector – to fill the space between the deregulating free marketeers and hardline anti-profit socialists.

In opposition Reeves’ ‘smoked salmon breakfast offensives’ with the City burnished her credentials, while promises to reform business rates won support on the high street.

But things turned sour in Government; national insurance went up to pay for NHS investment, improved employment rights for workers made hiring more expensive, and business rates rises took many by surprise.

More successful has been Government support for modern industry, but Burnham will now have work to do to reposition Labour as a party of business and inclusive growth.

3. Immigration is a market dynamic that must be managed

Before Starmer, for too many Labour members immigration, open borders and free movement were synonymous – sacred cows to be worshipped and protected. But we contested this in Spirit of Britain, arguing firmly that there is a clear blue water between aggressively berating individual migrants and critiquing government migration policy, which should marry the UK’s social and economic needs.

Starmer leaves behind a wider recognition on the Left that the government must have control on who enters our country. While debate continues over Shabana Mahmood’s reforms, the conversation tends to centre on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘whether’ we need control over our borders.

4. Social mobility is important, but not sufficient, when entire communities are left behind.

‘Brain drain’ was a phrase we heard over and again during our research, with industrial and coastal towns ageing as teenagers left for university, never to return. 

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“Labour’s top priority must be to support the forgotten 50% who do not go to university”, we wrote. Lisa Nandy has since spoken passionately about creating jobs in ‘ignored’ communities, while Starmer announced new technical education colleges in his 2024 conference speech. 

Now, with so many graduates unemployed or encumbered with student loans, the Labour Party is once again a champion of technical education – and not before time.

5. Our social responsibilities are as important as our rights

“Ordinary people see millionaires hiding their wealth offshore…and people on benefits who haven’t worked for decades”, we wrote.

The idea of rewarding hard work and contribution was as politically salient in the last decade as it is today. Indeed, Starmer has sought to put the concept of rewarding ‘contribution’ at the heart of his welfare and immigration reforms.

Yet, while these ‘big ticket’ policies are popular with the public, Starmer appears to have shifted the policy without winning the arguments inside Labour.

And while welfare may have sealed his fate, perhaps the failure to balance welfare reform with traditional social democratic politics – such as taxing unearned wealth – was even more harmful.

6. Common bonds build a nation, more so than diversity 

Spirit of Britain, Purpose of Labour told it how it was: “The Labour party has been so obsessed with talking about ‘celebrating our differences’ we’ve failed miserably to remember to celebrate what we have in common” – noting that Jo Cox was right to say famously that “we have more in common than that which divides us”. 

In that sense Starmer has succeeded in shifting Labour’s politics back towards the issues that matter to all of us – good jobs, housing, pride in place, the NHS, education… Labour is therefore now much better placed to succeed than in 2020, but Burnham faces the hard task of uniting an increasingly divided country.

Altogether Starmer can point to these six seismic shifts to show how he has successfully restored the Purpose of Labour. But the gloom, incoherence and technocracy that defined Starmer’s premiership means that it will land on Burnham to rebuild the Spirit of Britain.

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