Hard to say exactly who, just like it would be for ‘New Labour’ or ‘Old Labour’. Id guess maybe just a few hundred party members might consider themselves part of the faction. But only by going further and being bolder will he appeal to the working-class voters in post-industrial towns who deserted Labour in 2019 and thereby secure a majority at the next election. Keir Starmer is evidently moving in a Blue Labour direction. The greater threat is a retreat to New Labour slogans of mindless modernisation that leave people cold and alienated from politics altogether. Having found his voice, the task for Starmer is now to develop a national narrative - a convincing story of how Labour will build a remoralised politics and an embedded economy at the service of a renewed, more resilient society.Īt this point, the danger is not so much the temptation of identity politics, though it will take much more than one speech to save Labour from the ultra-progressive ideology that risks denying the party a majority at the next election. Lofty words for sure, yet ones that resonate at a time of social fragmentation and the dissolution of both familial and communal bonds. Instead, the appeal was to the Britain of the Great Queue - togetherness, solidarity, patience, civility and being bound together by a common purpose.
Gone (for now) is the gesture politics of extreme identity ideology - no mention of trans rights, for example. That is why Starmer links Labour’s radical economics and green re-industrialisation to people’s yearning for security and belonging. It will also contribute to renewing rural and coastal towns like Blackpool, Southend and Grimsby decimated by deindustrialisation and dispossession.Ī Blue Labour national renewal would not be limited to greater economic prosperity but focused on rebuilding social ties too. Massive investment in technical training and vocational colleg es, alongside green industries, will not only help Britain break its addiction to importing cheaper foreign skilled workers (who end up being exploited by big business and middle-class consumers).
Reinstating the 45p income tax rate and investing the proceeds in vocational training is another sign that Starmer has learnt from the Blue Labour paradox of fiscal prudence with a bold economic offer. The goal is to rebuild the national economy - hence Starmer’s pledge to restore “British power to the British people”. This is reorienting Labour away from both New Labour’s devotion to markets and globalisation and Corbyn’s central state nationalisation towards a more communitarian corporatist model. Great British Energy, Labour’s flagship policy idea, is a new kind of company owned by the people and based on what Sir Keir calls “ the biggest partnership between government, business and communities this country has ever seen”.
Whereas the Tories under Truss use state power to extend the reach of the market, Starmer appears to put society first.
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