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Tristram Hunt say Labour party needs 'shock treatment' Labour needs 'shock treatment', says Tristram Hunt
(34 minutes later)
Tristram Hunt, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has claimed the party’s leadership contest is so lifeless that it needs a defibrillator placed on it, warning that it is still possible the party “could disappear overnight”. Tristram Hunt, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has claimed the party’s leadership contest is so lifeless that it needs a defibrillator placed on it, warning it is still possible the party “could disappear overnight”.
Admitting “the party needs shock treatment”, Hunt’s speech at a Policy Network seminar in London was probably the starkest warning yet that the party is heading for electoral oblivion if it fails to address the causes of its defeat in May. Admitting “the party needs shock treatment”, Hunt’s speech at a Policy Network seminar in London was probably the starkest warning yet that Labour is heading for electoral oblivion if it fails to address the causes of its general election defeat in May.
We need so much more than micro-target policies and a change in personality if we are to arrest our declineWe need so much more than micro-target policies and a change in personality if we are to arrest our decline
He said: “What we need is a summer of hard truths. We must widen what is, at the moment at least, a rather narrow and parochial discussion about Labour’s future. For the hardest of hard truths is that we need so much more than micro-target policies and a change in personality if we are to arrest our decline.”He said: “What we need is a summer of hard truths. We must widen what is, at the moment at least, a rather narrow and parochial discussion about Labour’s future. For the hardest of hard truths is that we need so much more than micro-target policies and a change in personality if we are to arrest our decline.”
Hunt claimed that at present, too many were trying to shut down debate. Labour needed to plot a course between the “new populism”, embodied in movements such as Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos, on the one hand and the centre-right on the other. Hunt claimed Labour needed to plot a course between the “new populism” embodied in movements such as Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos on the one hand, and the centre-right on the other.
Labour should marry the patriotism and “emotional connection” that such populist parties have made with the electorate with an explicitly Blairite stance on public finances, he said. Labour should marry the patriotism and “emotional connection” such parties have made with the electorate with an explicitly Blairite stance on public finances, he said.
Hunt is one of a small group of Labour MPs urging the party to adopt a stronger English identity and even set up an English Labour Party. “Issues of culture, identity and defending the national interest are now as important – if not more important – than material questions of public policy.” Hunt is one of a small group of Labour MPs urging the party to adopt a stronger English identity and even set up an English Labour party. “Issues of culture, identity and defending the national interest are now as important – if not more important – than material questions of public policy.”
Related: Who should Labour speak for now? | John HarrisRelated: Who should Labour speak for now? | John Harris
The party, he said, needs to address apathy and the wider mistrust of mainstream politics since it harms the left far more than centre-right rivals. The party, he said, needed to address apathy and the wider mistrust of mainstream politics since it harmed the left far more than centre-right rivals.
Suggesting the party was suffering a deep-seated intellectual timidity in the face of economic austerity, Hunt said: “The Eurozone crisis is punishing conciliatory parties, creating new confrontations and shattering old coalitions of support.” Suggesting the party was suffering a deep-seated intellectual timidity in the face of economic austerity, Hunt said: “The eurozone crisis is punishing conciliatory parties, creating new confrontations and shattering old coalitions of support.”
Analysing the election defeat, he said: “In Scotland and England, for different reasons, too many voters felt Labour was not standing up for them or their national interest. We were to Scotland like the EU is to Greece – a foreign technocratic elite telling them they could not be trusted with their own affairs.Analysing the election defeat, he said: “In Scotland and England, for different reasons, too many voters felt Labour was not standing up for them or their national interest. We were to Scotland like the EU is to Greece – a foreign technocratic elite telling them they could not be trusted with their own affairs.
“This sort of national struggle between identity politics on one hand, and technocracy on the other, is increasingly the prism through which European voters refract their politics.”“This sort of national struggle between identity politics on one hand, and technocracy on the other, is increasingly the prism through which European voters refract their politics.”
Labour, Hunt said, seems “uneasy with the modern landscape of Englishness – of St George’s flags, music festivals, soap operas, Premier League football, shopping, gardening and baking”. Labour, Hunt said, seemed uneasy with “the modern landscape of Englishness – of St George’s flags, music festivals, soap operas, Premier League football, shopping, gardening and baking”.
“In any climate – let alone the current one – such reticence would be an absolutely toxic perception. But what makes it all the more frustrating is that there is a rich English historical tradition which has always stood in fierce opposition to Conservatism and inequality.”“In any climate – let alone the current one – such reticence would be an absolutely toxic perception. But what makes it all the more frustrating is that there is a rich English historical tradition which has always stood in fierce opposition to Conservatism and inequality.”