The challenge facing our movement is to reform, rebuild and reconnect in opposition – and then be ready to fight and win the next general election. I am standing to be leader of the Labour Party because I am an idealist about Britain and the potential of politics to change our country for the better.
I believe that you judge a country by the condition of the weak not just the strong, that you build strong communities on responsibilities as well as rights, that we are joined by humanity and self-interest with people around the globe. Those are the values of my upbringing.
I believe we need a market economy but not a market society. There are values beyond markets that it is our duty to nurture: justice, compassion, sustainability. That is what my community in South Shields stands for.
I believe injustice is real but not inevitable, and it is the job of politics to attack it, at home and abroad. That is what I have tried to do in government.
While there were silver linings on election night, we have to be honest that we lost, and lost badly, to a Conservative Party which people did not want to vote for. In a change election, we were perceived to be defending the old order. Future is the most important word in politics, but we looked out of time.
If we’re brutally honest, for too many people, we were not the people’s party that was created a century ago, but the politicians’ party. We were perceived by too many voters – our people – as out of touch. We all agreed we need to renew in government but we did not manage to make it real.
On policy, we were neither proud enough of our record, humble enough about our mistakes, nor clear enough about our offer. We lost focus on education and anti-social behaviour. We were playing catch-up on political reform, immigration and housing.
On culture and organisation, we did not symbolise today’s requirements for openness, participation and dialogue. We talked about new politics, but did not escape the image of politics as a game not a calling.
The result is that our conversation with the public broke down. We need to restart it with our most precious asset – our idealism for a better future.
Idealism is the lifeblood of our party. Not that we think we will build heaven on earth, but that we should try. The beating heart of progressive values in Britain has not been stilled. What we lost was the sense that the Labour Party could be the vehicle for the implementation of those values.
In putting that right we must start with one vow more important than any other. The Tony Blair/Gordon Brown era is over. I am not interested in politics defined as Blairite or Brownite. New Labour isn’t new any more. We learn from it, we benefit from it, we seek to emulate its successes but not repeat its mantras.
New Labour did fantastic things for the country. But now we are out of power, what counts is next Labour. Listening, idealistic, open, engaged, thoughtful, radical, decisive, Labour. So what do we need to rebuild and win again?
First, we must reconnect with our values and our voters – because politics without values is not just barren; it is unsuccessful. We should have made eradicating child poverty a mass movement for social change led by the Labour Government. Instead it became a target to meet.
Second, we must renew our ideology and ideas. The best of the last 13 years has been transformative, but we have to be honest about our mistakes. I stand for individual freedom and social justice, the two traditions of progressive politics in Britain. We succeed when we make them partners, as with the national minimum wage; we fail when they become enemies. We must make them partners again.
Third, we must renew our party so we become a movement for change in our communities as well as an election-winning machine. I am convinced that many of the seats we held onto were because of the work done by local activists in their local communities. They know what works – we have to learn from them.
As a start, we need to engage far better with the three million trade unionists who choose to pay the political levy in what I believe is a positive act of democratic participation. We should also look at what sister socialist parties around the world have done, with experiments such as free party membership and building up connections with civic society that new media make possible.
I know what sort of Britain I want to live in: one where people have the power to determine their destiny, where they have security against risks beyond their control and a sense of belonging in the world. And I know what sort of Labour Party we need to deliver that Britain: a living, breathing movement and not just a machine.
The task before our movement is simple to state and hard to achieve: to select a leader who can fire the imagination, unite different talents, be a credible candidate for Prime Minister and above all else win the battle of ideas. I am confident I have the beliefs not just to win an election, but also to lead change in the country. l
Next week: Ed Balls and Ed Miliband present their visions for the future of the Labour Party
