How We Can Win The Coming Election
By John McDonnell MP
All elections are won on the basis of the twin foundation stones of ideas and organisation. In 2017 we came close to winning the election because we were able to create a rapid understanding in the midst of the campaign that we could change the whole dynamic of our society - and in particular our economy.
By promising and demonstrating that we could end austerity we were able to give people hope of a different immediate future for themselves, their families and their communities. By listing detailed policies we were able to show how this could be done. The production of a costed programme gave confidence to people that we knew what we were talking about and could fund and deliver what we promised.
When the last election was called we started 24 points behind the Tories in the polls. By the end of the campaign we were neck and neck with them. My belief is that if the campaign had gone on another week we would be in government now.
We have to campaign on the basis of a political programme that concretely addresses the issues people are facing in their daily lives - but also one that gives people hope for the creation of a society and world that fulfils their ideals.
2017 is behind us and we can’t face the next election with an attitude of just one more haul and we’re there. Elections don’t work that way. We can never, and nor should we, take any vote or voter for granted. So we have to campaign on the basis of a political programme that concretely addresses the issues people are facing in their daily lives - but also one that gives people hope for the creation of a society and world that fulfils their ideals.
The immediate issue for most of our people is simply getting by, simply having sufficient income to provide for themselves and their families a decent standard of living. But people also have an appreciation of the way they would like their society to be. Most now understand the threat to our planet and way of life from climate change.
Any political party seeking to form a government has to combine a plan to transform people’s insecure and pressurised daily lives with a determined and feasible programme to address climate change if it is to be taken seriously, let alone be elected. Only the Labour Party is capable of providing a realistic political platform that combines immediate improvement with long-term solutions to this existential environmental threat.
We have already produced the plan to end in-work poverty with our £10 an hour real living wage, restoration of sectoral collective bargaining and trade union rights for all from day one of employment. Our proposals to scrap Universal Credit and institute a real social security safety net, along with scrapping the bedroom tax and ending the child benefits freeze, will eliminate poverty among all those who are not able to undertake full-time work. The proper funding and development of universal basic services will ensure that our people have access to the basic ingredients needed to live a full life.
To tackle climate change we are committed to a green new deal, investing in a green industrial revolution on which we will secure the jobs that will transform the operation of our economy to enable us to save our planet.
If we are to win people’s hearts and minds in this coming election campaign we also have to integrate our approach to Brexit within our overall approach. This shouldn’t be an issue that fundamentally divides the left. Whether one voted Remain or Leave we must all oppose the type of Brexit the Johnson-led extreme right wants to impose upon us.
The extreme right wing clique that now controls the Tory Party has long advocated a deregulated race to the bottom in standards of employment, consumer and environmental rights. The Brexit they seek gives them the opportunity for which they have waited a generation since Thatcher.
That’s why Labour is ideally positioned to expose the Tory plans and to offer to both leavers and remainers a way forward, preventing a Tory hard-right Brexit with a sensible alternative and offering a democratic opportunity to choose to remain. A constructive debate can be held and a solution found that brings our country back together.
JOHN MCDONNELL
Shadow Chancellor, MP for Hayes and Harlington, Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and Chair of the Labour Representation Committee. John has been involved in Labour Briefing since the early years. This is his column in the November 2019 issue.
