Beyond the big cities: Labour's offer to towns, rural and coastal communities.
| Author | Bassam, Steve |
| Position | RURAL POLICY AND POLITICS |
Much has been written about Labour's fate in what were described as the 'red wall' seats that fell to Boris Johnson's Conservative Party in the 2019 general election, as well as in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election. The vast majority of these seats were in areas of the country that had overwhelmingly voted to leave the EU in 2016 and had stayed loyal to Labour in 2017. It is this shared characteristic that political commentators have alighted on in looking at the future for Labour and the potential for its recovery as a successful national party.
There are, however, other shared characteristics which begin to explain the scale of the task confronting Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party in terms of its popular appeal. Over the last thirty to forty years, these are parts of the country that have moved away from Labour, with the exception of the Blair years when Labour was led by a leader with a broad appeal and wide demographic reach. In the years that have followed, Labour has struggled to fashion an appeal that goes beyond the cities that it now dominates and that contain a core cosmopolitan vote.
Towards the end of the Blair and Brown governments, MPs in northern seats and parts of Scotland began to report traditional Labour voters deserting the party. After the 2007 elections to the Scottish parliament, this became even more apparent as dissatisfaction manifested in rising levels of support for the SNP, culminating in Labour recording its poorest Westminster performance in Scotland in the 2015 general election. Party leaders warned northern Labour MPs that the same political forces they had experienced north of the border were soon to visit 'heartland' seats. The election of 2019 proved them right.
What factors were at play in those areas, and what is it about the modern Tory Party that enables them to translate a disaffection from Labour within its traditional working-class base into support for a party led by seemingly elitist politicians? Linked to this question must be a series of policy related questions that enable Labour to reconnect to a broader electoral base, and in particular to voters identified as living in so-called 'left-behind' communities.
Context
After the 1997 election Labour seemed to have cracked the political equivalent of the Da Vinci Code: how to appeal to all classes, all communities and all places. Its MPs represented seats covering vast rural constituencies, seaside towns, small towns, and the large conurbations and cities across the UK.
There was a sense that its political reach was potentially universal. Its appeal was based on principles of fairness, equity and social inclusion. Its policy offer, though in many ways modest, had something for everyone. It seemed aspirational with its school improvement offer, fair with promised improvements to hospitals for all, and connected to community concerns with its focus on crime and social disruption, coupled with a message of reducing the social determinants of crime. Moreover, Labour said it wasn't going to break the bank to pay for improvements.
Today Labour represents few of those areas outside the big cities, and in recent years has apparently had little to say about the concerns that trouble those communities or what would make them feel part of the national story. Needless to say, many people living in seaside towns, rural areas and small towns feel neglected, and that the issues they face are overlooked.
Lords reports on the left-behind places
In 2018, two select committees in the House of Lords looked at the issues, and reported in April 2019, one on the Rural Economy and the other focused on the Future of Seaside Towns. The reports captured the sense of isolation in these communities, and the retreat of public services they had experienced over a number of decades. They painted a picture of communities that could be richly rewarding to live in but were also experiencing decline.
This complexity was perhaps best encapsulated by the impact of the withdrawal of key and...
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