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6 hours ago
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The 1951 Labour government proudly signed the refugee convention. Today’s Labour government is now in danger of consigning it to history. Why and how this is happening challenges those of us who are both socialists and democrats. For our economy, our society and our sanity we must reject the thinking of the Blue Labour faction and set out what Labour truly represents instead.
The performative cruelty of repeatedly demanding that refugees prove they are still refugees – or else face deportation – cannot be understated. It is also a waste of money given that so few refugees, when retested, will change status. At nearly £1bn, this is money that could be better spent on foreign aid programmes to tackle the conflicts that create refugees. The home secretary is also attempting to bypass parliament altogether – using “Henry VIII” powers to push these changes through with minimal scrutiny.
This policy emanates from the current incarnation of Blue Labour. The group blames London liberals for cannibalising British identity, values, cultures and ways of living. It demands that progressives disavow those who stray from these norms as “the other”. It nurtures a nostalgia for a nation that only ever worked for the few.
It is not just refugees who will bear the brunt of this kind of thinking. Blue Labour also parrots the “lump of labour” fallacy that immigrants come here to take jobs rather than help make them, and seeks to deter them accordingly.
For a government fighting on multiple fronts, this approach has been ineffective as well as toxic. Ministers are responding to headlines, not data or evidence about what actually works. How else to explain doomed welfare proposals, ID cards or cutting affordable housing targets. Repeated attempts to circumvent parliamentary process have delivered a spate of anti-democratic measures and poorly thought-through policies, which would have been decried had they come from any other administration. Whether by using statutory instrument committees, abolishing jury trials or even attempting to unilaterally rewrite the European convention on human rights, without change Labour will become the living embodiment of David Mitchell in the famous Mitchell and Webb sketch, asking: “Are we the baddies?”
There is an alternative way forward: being True – not Blue – Labour. True Labour doesn’t fear those who are different. Instead, it demands everyone contribute their abilities to society – and works to unlock such skills. It asks what we each need to achieve, because the benefits to society are clear when more people do succeed. In the 19th century, this underpinned Labour’s crusade to emancipate people from poverty. In the 20th century, the party added a recognition that wellbeing – founded on a national health service and comprehensive education – would help more people realise their abilities. In a volatile 21st century, we need to demonstrate again that we know that wasted talent is an injustice – and turn this recognition into policies that help people take charge of their own destinies.
The liberalism woven into this vision of the Labour party is not the woke caricature of someone telling others what to do or think. It is about recognising the multiple economic, social and cultural barriers people can face in life – and how freeing them from these obstacles makes success more likely. It also understands that freedom from want and fear and a greater sense of control over your life is the strongest path to economic and social prosperity for all.
When we ask ourselves what is holding Britain back from being more productive, it is not immigrants or women who don’t have enough babies – whatever the claims of the right. Instead, tackling the cost of living crisis and inequality, and confronting division and distrust should be our priorities. This thinking compels us to address the mountain of personal debt that keeps millions awake at night. It calls for a ministerial champion for consumers to bear down on all bills – tasked with ensuring that no public body or private entity can drive you into debt, whether through fines, late payments or enforcement. It also makes us ask why you can inherit £1m tax free, and why more than a million households are on the housing waiting list. Those with access to the bank of Mum and Dad take risks others cannot. Restoring child trust funds would help give every 18-year-old the chance to pay for training, housing, starting a business or going to university.
If Labour focused on empowerment, it would also recognise that confidence to act thrives in supportive communities and loving homes. Yet in contrast to Blue Labour, True Labour recognises that these can oppress as well as nourish. The motherhood penalty is not just misogyny in action – it’s poor economics as 1 million women are on benefits because their caring commitments preclude work. Reforming childcare and parental leave as well as making social care universal, equitable and paid would transform the family lives of millions.
Labour’s interest in agency should not just be for individuals – instead of talk of “pulling levers” in Whitehall, Labour should develop not-for-profit versions of private finance initiatives and social bonds to empower communities to invest in their own futures. True Labour also generates national agency through internationalism – in a world so fragmented, we always fight to be in the room to advocate for our country, whether in Europe, renewing Nato or tackling the climate crisis.
These proposals are just the start of setting out a course correction to Blue Labour. We need to have this debate now because it is not the U-turns or the hardline immigration laws that trouble this government most – it’s the lack of gravitational pull towards social justice. Labour is experiencing in real time the consequences of failing to define its ideological course for a generation, and of a worrying lack of intellectual curiosity. It used to be that we won elections by making an argument. Then we just won elections by not being the Tories. Now we are at risk of losing both the argument and the election. But it doesn’t have to be this way – it’s time to take back control.
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Stella Creasy is the chair of the Labour Movement for Europe and the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow
