The Labour Party is the greatest champion of equality and opportunity that our country has ever known - that has always been our cause. But right now, our party lacks the public’s trust. Unless we can restore that, we won’t deliver on the causes we believe in.
If we do restore trust, we can deliver on the five causes that Labour must put at the centre of our vision for Britain’s future – ending inequality which sets in at birth; eliminating low pay; building a caring society, sharing power with people, and delivering a future of hope for our young people.
Read more: Liz Kendall issues five pledges
Our greatest achievements – the NHS, the minimum wage, sure start – have had a profound and lasting impact on our country. All were achieved not through the difficult years of opposition, but by delivering in government.
Now, as Labour confronts another five years of Tory divide and rule, we must look ahead to the next great achievements of our party and our movement. We must establish the causes for which we will fight. And we must establish a positive vision of the more equal and just Britain we’re fighting for.
Labour leadership: The Contenders
All too often our politics lacks the energy, enthusiasm and idealism that is crucial in driving change and winning elections for those of us who believe such change is necessary.
After a traumatic defeat, it’s understandable that people want to reach out for a radical option that appears to offer hope for party and country alike. But Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t have a monopoly on hope. And his solutions based on conventions of the past won’t help us win the national conversation in the years ahead. Quite the opposite.
And those who have so far failed to provide a coherent alternative to either the politics that lose us the last election – or the politics of the 1980s – must also show that they have a clear idea of what they want Britain to look like in the years ahead.
We must offer a realistic prospect of that new nation we wish to build, not the false hope of policies that are neither realistic nor electable.
Because it is unquestionable that Britain needs change. The financial crisis – almost a decade ago – still reverberates throughout our society. There are deeper problems from before the crisis. Low productivity. Too many people trapped on low pay in low skill jobs – and a housing market that excludes millions.
Labour Leadership cadidates, from left to right: Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham (PA)
So we need to end the inequality that sets in birth. The Tories have cut inheritance tax to promote inherited wealth – I’ve said that we would send that money instead on tackling inherited disadvantage through a revolution in early years care.
We must eliminate low pay – because there is no good reason why so many people earn poverty wages. We can drive up wages by giving greater powers to the Low Pay Commission - building a real living wage society. We can get people back to work, making sure people get a decent day’s wage and building the homes that our nation needs. And we must give our public service workers, on whom we all rely, the decent pay rise they need and deserve at a time when we’re asking so much of them.
We need to build a more caring society. So that means closing down Assessment and Treatment Units so we can provide better services for vulnerable people in our society instead. And it means making sure we tackle low pay in the care sector – because we should never leave our loved ones to be looked after by people who are themselves struggling to afford the basics.
We need to share power with people. We can push power away from central government into people’s hands. We can scrap the dreadful work programme, and let local councils and communities build a replacement that works. We can support fantastic projects to deliver green energy, like Brixton Solar which I visited last month. A country that shares power with the people not a government that hoards power for itself. And power to workers – giving people a stake and a say in the companies they work for.
We need to build a future of hope for our young people. We must unleash their talents in every corner of Britain, so they have the skills, networks, chances and choices to get the jobs of the future. We can take on the tremendous challenge of climate change and become a world leader in green energy.
Liz Kendall at a hustings event (Getty)
There is nothing that inspires more hope in me than the thought of the next Labour government, changing our nation for the better, together. But doing that means we need to win the argument – one that we’re so sure of but which the public are sceptical about – that says things would be better if Labour were driving change.
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The scale of the challenge we face demands boldness and radicalism. A timid offer to the British people isn’t the alternative. For too long, Labour has engaged in the politics of fear. We’ve talked – rightly - about the risks of a Tory government, but we’ve spent too little time talking about the hopeful alternative. Labour wins not when we are pessimistic about our future, but when we’re focussed on the open, confident – and better – country that we can build.
When the interests and energies of the Labour Party and the British people are aligned, we can achieve so much.
If we are focussed on these causes, we can unite the Labour Party and our country – and we can deliver Labour’s next great achievements together. Delivering change for people – this must be our cause.
