A new battlefront is being drawn within Labour’s parliamentary ranks – one that will dictate the direction of the party as it heads into the general election in 2029.
While it may seem premature for MPs to discuss their electoral prospects more than four years on from now, consistent polling showing the threat of Reform UK and a swathe of MPs sitting on wafer thin majorities has led to an outbreak of navel-gazing on the Labour benches.
It has brought with it talk of resurrecting the teachings of Blue Labour, a movement that many believed had died 10 years ago along with the demise of Ed Miliband’s leadership.
But the shift in the political landscape, one that has seen a rise in support for right-wing populism both in the UK and US, has prompted a swathe of Labour’s new MPs to turn to the “Blue Labour” doctrine in the hope of seeing off the threat of Nigel Farage’s new party.
As one “Red Wall” MP defending a majority of less than a thousand put it: “We have council by-elections where Reform didn’t even stand last time around but are now looking odds on to win.
“We have to start talking about stuff that is going to chime with people like my constituents.”
Such has been the renewed focus on Blue Labour, those behind the movement felt obliged to once again establish what it stands for, stating on X/Twitter on Thursday night: “The Labour Party was established to represent working-class people in Parliament. It did not begin life as a liberal party or a progressive party, but a party of, by and for working people. The clue was in the name.
“But by embracing globalisation, Labour refashioned itself as a progressive party cut adrift from the large majority of the working class. The liberal consensus is collapsing and Labour risks being left in the previous era.”
Established by Maurice Glasman, the Labour peer and political theorist, the ideology fell out of favour during the Corbyn years, which saw Labour’s appeal shift towards middle class city dwellers and university students, and away from working-class voters in Labour’s post industrial heartlands. But Glasman – the only UK Labour Party figure invited to President Trump’s inauguration this year – believes that the progressive ideals of Corbynism and the US Democrat Party are on the back foot.
Speaking to The House magazine this month, Parliament’s in-house publication, Glasman said: “Europe is swinging hard right, America has just gone totally MAGA, and progressive liberalism is in retreat everywhere.”
It is a viewpoint that is beginning to get a foothold within the Labour parliamentary party, and one that risks scratching out new dividing lines among MPs.
Glasman, who is openly disdainful towards New Labour, has already knocked some noses out of joint following comments he gave to Labour bible the New Statesman this week in which he branded Rachel Reeves as “just a drone for the Treasury”.
“There’s no vision of economic renewal and no idea about how to renew the faraway towns,” he claimed.
But MPs and ministers are willing to overlook his acerbic tone, as they become increasingly convinced in the need for Labour to pivot more towards the needs of working-class voters by the time of the next election.
“I’m a big fan of Maurice, he can go a bit off the scale sometimes but he is a great thinker,” one minister told The i Paper. “Him and John Cruddas [the former Dagenham Labour MP] have come up with some good stuff. It comes down to faith, family and flag and being proud of who you are and where you come from.”
But the minister acknowledged that there is some significant scepticism from Labour MPs over the approach, particularly given the party is made up of a very broad coalition after it swept to power in July, regaining seats like Bolsover and Workington but also winning the likes of Banbury in Oxfordshire for the first time.
“I think there is a tension within the party,” the minister added. “Morgan [McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff] gets this stuff, particularly given his background and where he has come from. The tension will be around what type of new coalition we will form to fight the next election because it won’t be the same coalition as we fought the last one and it is more likely to be a narrower coalition.
“That means for people sitting on decent majorities this time around, might not be sitting quite such big majorities come the next election. We will have to go for a different demographic.”
The comments were echoed by another Labour MP representing a “Red Wall” seat, who disagreed with Glasman’s criticism of Reeves (“uncalled for”) and with the branding of Blue Labour (“too much blue”), but who said a new direction will be needed ahead of the next election.
“In terms of the reindustrialisation of parts of the country and focusing on improving the lot of the working classes, I totally agree with the idea,” the backbencher said. “The kind of Boris Johnson-style spending on public services but remaining socially conservative. I believe we should be doing more of that.”
The MP admitted: “There is a tension in the parliamentary party. The problem is, the people who have been around and who were more likely to secure ministerial jobs are the ones in seats that Corbyn held onto in 2019. But they represent very particular types of constituencies and so their view of things is very different to how those of us representing more working class seats.”
“But Morgan certainly understands it. He isn’t stupid and Keir and the people around him are no fools. They know that what speaks to working-class voters in Red Wall seats in the North East, will also work with people in Essex and Kent. It’s basically common-sense values.”
McSweeney, who ran Labour’s hugely successful election campaign, is understood to be a disciple of the Blue Labour ideology, having worked closely with Cruddas and Glasman in Barking and Dagenham to see off the threat of the BNP.
But he risks sparking an internal war if he decides the most effective way to win the next election is by sacrificing MPs that represent more liberal parts of the country.
As one MP representing a well-heeled former Tory constituency put it: “I think any return of Blue Labour would be toxic. They are talking about trying to win back voters that are never coming back. The very fact that I have been elected shows that the party has changed.
“I think we probably can just about ride two horses and appeal to more working-class voters as well as the former Tories and Lib Dems who voted for us this time round.
“But I don’t think there is any desire to see Blue Labour return. They may have had a case back in 2015 but we have moved on from then. They don’t really have much of a presence in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party]. Morgan knows what wins elections, it’s not about Blue Labour.”
Both sides of the divide have faith in McSweeney and his electoral prowess – but will it be repaid come 2029?
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