Tristram Hunt: Labour must regain trust of working class

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/11/tristram-hunt-labour-must-regain-trust-working-class

Version 0 of 1.

Tristram Hunt, one of three Labour modernisers hoping to stand for the leadership, has said the party needs to understand not just how it failed to find an aspirational economic message, but also to appreciate the sense of loss and dislocation many traditional working-class communities have felt over the past two decades.

Related: Labour must understand the scale of its defeat. But we can and will rebuild | Tristram Hunt

Hunt, the shadow education secretary, is one of the 2010 intake of Labour MPs trying to offer the party a clean break from the past. He writes in the Guardian of a need to have a total reappraisal, saying: “In too many parts of the north of England and the Midlands, the electoral challenge we faced was from Ukip – selling an anti-metropolitan message about political elites uninterested in those ‘left behind.’ These were historically Labour areas who just simply felt that Labour was no longer for them.”

Hunt, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, has put in a series of strong TV performances since last week’s election defeat, but is probably the backmarker of the three moderniser candidates in terms of his support in the parliamentary party.

It is likely to be argued that MPs should spread their nominations across the five likely candidates to ensure they all get a chance to make their case to the party membership, rather than being being blocked due to a lack of parliamentary backing. A candidate needs support of 15% of the parliamentary party.

Hunt, a historian and shadow cabinet member for only two years, writes: “We can only achieve a Labour government if we can combine a compassionate story about supporting those who need it most with a sense of optimism and hope for those who aspire to climb life’s ladder.”

But he also suggests some of the loss of support is not to do with materialism, but instead issues of identity.

He writes: “We in the Labour party now face a triple bind: the rise of nationalism in Scotland; the loss of confidence in middle England; and a lack of trust in large parts of traditionally Labour communities. Rebuilding an electoral coalition which has fragmented towards the SNP, Ukip and the Tories can never be adequately addressed by a series of tailored policy solutions. It is much more a question of instinct, message, trust and sentiment.

“Our language has to endorse business and enterprise, but also champion a sense of national identity which in many parts of the country feels undervalued. Our politics needs to allow for a greater plurality of voices and experiences from across the party.

“We somehow have to rebuild the broader Labour movement and learn from the SNP that politics is an emotional and cultural force, rather than public policy seminar or data collection exercise. And our economic policy needs to be built on the essential conundrum of social democratic politics in an age of restricted public finances. In short, a Labour programme built around both wealth creation and cultural affirmation.”

With the party national executive due to meet on Wednesday to decide the timetable for the leadership election, Hunt argues a short timetable is not in the party’s interest. Some argue a short timetable will help the frontrunners such as the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, a popular figure with the unions and party membership.

In an implicit criticism of the election campaign led by Ed Miliband, Hunt says: “We didn’t dissect the British productivity challenge; we ducked the issue of a federal United Kingdom; we avoided the financial black hole affecting health care; we chose not to address the threat of Islamic radicalism; and we didn’t even touch the impact of the digital revolution on the labour force.”