Progressive Britain

Andy Burnham is the fifth occupant of Downing Street in ten years to be handed the keys by his party, rather than by the voters. The keys come with the red boxes, the flat above the shop, the podium with the crest on it. Three weeks in, the ambition is not in doubt, but the maths doesn’t add up.

Earlier this week, I took part in Scottish Labour’s first hustings of this leadership election. The room brought together members, CLP officers, trade unionists, parliamentarians, and affiliate members all of whom are the very lifeblood of our party. It is clear to me that the only way back for Scottish Labour is to use the vast breadth of ideas, local knowledge, and talent of all who make up our movement. Leadership cannot be about one person alone.

Scottish Labour must prove it is ready to win and ready to govern There is no shortcut back to trust and we will not recover because voters decide it is our turn, or because the SNP have run out of road. Angry voters do not automatically become our support. Disappointment does not automatically become belief. If we want people to trust Labour again, we have to earn it. That means showing Scotland that we are serious about winning and serious about governing.

In July I had the wonderful opportunity of attending Progress’ Political Weekend in Birmingham. Amidst a resounding political moment, it was wonderful to be among progressive friends, building depth and community in our small corner of the Labour Party. Political Weekend came at exactly the right instance to build that unity and hope amongst progressives, at a moment when it would be easy to feel like the ground beneath us is shifting faster than we can keep up with.

Keir Starmer took Labour from its worst defeat in over seventy years to its second best election victory. This achievement alone should be enough to secure his legacy in Labour folklore. But there is more. Labour was not just electorally broken by 2019 – it was morally, institutionally and financially broken too. It required a wholesale rebuild. He rebuilt the party’s structures. He was good to his word in tearing antisemitism out by its roots within our party.

With the arrival of Andy Burnham, the battle for the political heart of this country is back on – only he can take Reform on and win. That the ex-mayor of Manchester’s story and he’s selling it well. The prime minister-elect has also made it abundantly clear, especially in his speech last week, that he views the rise of populism as just one aspect of a broader and more terrifying collapse in economic and political disengagement if whole swathes of provincial England.

Keir Starmer deserves eternal praise for rescuing the Labour Party from the moral bankruptcy of the Corbyn years, winning a landslide victory less than two years ago, and for winning allies and increasing our international credibility. His stalwart support for Ukraine has helped that country stand up to the Putin dictatorship. In a grave new world such clear-headed leadership is vital to our managing rapid geopolitical change and increased risks from enemies such as Russia.

This blog is based on the foreword to our new paper The Future has 5G Foundations. Britain is searching for growth. We do not need to rehash here the problems which slow growth in both GDP and productivity have presented. How our wage growth trajectory has collapsed since the financial crisis. How a highly leveraged government needs growth to meet the spending needs incurred by a dangerous world and aging population.

Connectivity is the fuel of the future. Do we have enough? To deliver the growth we need politicians agree Britain must lead on new technologies and spread opportunity around the round the country. What government actually does to deliver against both objectives though is complicated and often hard to for it to articulate, particularly in a political case.

The truce declared this week between the US and the Islamic Republic after months of conflict appears likely to reopen the strait of Hormuz for the passage of ships, but little else appears certain. The agreement has put off the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme for further talks; there is no mention of Iran’s ballistic missile programme or its support for proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.