On the day that new Labour leader Ed Miliband declared “New Labour is dead” the Blairite rump of the party met in Manchester and vowed to keep the Project on the road. Dismayed that David Miliband was defeated, but defiant, they promised to prevent the party “veering to the left”. At the Progress Rally held, ironically, in the Comedy Store on Deansgate Locks, the mood was despondent. Progress backed David Miliband for leader and Oona King as Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London so Tony Blair’s erstwhile cheerleaders were two-time losers before conference even began. Peter Mandelson, billed as the star turn, failed to turn up.
Caroline Flint told the rally: “We were defeated, but we are not demoralised”. Ben Bradshaw said: “New Labour is not dead yet. New Labour is alive and well”, while Jonathan Reynolds cited Hugh Gaitskell’s famous “fight, fight and fight again” rallying call to the Labour right.
Margaret Hodge said: “The new leader has to demonstrate that Labour is not in the pocket of the trade unions. Union membership continues to plummet. We won’t look to old Labour policies or old Labour solutions. It’s not about building more homes or raising taxes or regulating businesses.”
Luke Akehurst argued vehemently against “the party moving to the left”, condemned the Grassroots Alliance as “hard left”, and Pete Willsman, his rival for a seat on the NEC, as “a hatchet man for Tony Benn in the 1970s.”
Oona King, who lost the safe Labour seat of Bethnal Green and Bow to George Galloway in 2005, complained that: “Once Ken [Livingstone] got the backing of nine out of 11 trade union leaders, it made it impossible for me to get my message to trade union members.” It was not, she said, democratic and she called for a change in the rules.
Jim Murphy, in the most thoughtful speech of the evening, said: “It’s been counter-cultural to vote Conservative in Scotland since Margaret Thatcher, but if Labour is to be anything more than a successful regional party in Scotland, Wales and inner London, then the party has to change.” He criticised New Labour for “misunderstanding the politics of fairness” and urged the party not to bother trying to divide the Liberal Democrats from the Conservatives but “to separate the coalition Government from the British public”.
