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Politics today is about winning the fight for both authenticity and attention. Let’s be honest: as Labour in government, we’ve sometimes struggled with both. We’ve found it hard to tell the real story about what is wrong with Britain and how we are going to fix it. For too long we’ve allowed Nigel Farage to set the terms of the debate, and far too often our responses have seemed tactical, not principled. By tacking one way and then the other, we have failed to provide a clear sense of whose side we are on and why.
As a result, we risk losing support by taking progressive voters for granted while failing to articulate a clear and compelling argument to those flirting with Farage that sets out why they would be wrong to put their faith in him.
Taking on Reform UK is the battle of our political age, but we shouldn’t end up arguing on their terms, using their language. We need to wrest back control of the political megaphone that Farage brandishes and use it to amplify a Labour message based on the values we cherish – and that the British people share. As Labour’s deputy leader I would take the fight to Farage in a way that would energise our movement and expose the mendacity his populist rhetoric disguises.
This week, the Reform leader announced he would deport millions of people who live here legally, rounding up law-abiding residents with settled status who work hard, pay their taxes and help make our country great. It was the most outrageous political announcement of my lifetime, raising the prospect of US-style immigration raids on homes and workplaces. The parents we meet outside the school gates, the neighbours we chat to on the street and the colleagues we share a drink with after work could be tracked down, arrested and disappeared. It is a disgraceful scheme cooked up by a man who is the love child of Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell. No amount of posing with pint in hand and fag in mouth can mask the malice, division and hatred that drives it.
We need to call out Farage for what he is, strongly and unashamedly. When the US president lies about about London wanting to “go to sharia law” under mayor Sadiq Khan, we have to call it out. When billionaires like Elon Musk encourage violence in our communities, we have to face up and fight. There can be no triangulation in the face of the hard right.
We need to rediscover the intellectual self-confidence to take the fight to Farage and set out the solutions the country needs to tackle the deep-seated problems holding Britain back.
Like all populists, Farage advocates simple solutions to complex problems. He tells voters that immigration is the root cause of deep societal challenges, including underfunded public services and stagnating living standards. The truth is they are caused by deep inequalities that lie at the heart of our economic system that have been exacerbated by 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule.
From Thatcherism to Cameron-era austerity, the Covid pandemic and the energy crisis, the majority of people in this country feel the economy has been run for the benefit of someone else rather than them. The wealthiest are cushioned from economic turmoil by asset inflation, while the less fortunate battle job insecurity, falling pay, rising rent, and soaring food and energy bills. Inequality between classes, communities and regions has worsened over the last few decades.
This is as true for the young person living in a city paying an extortionate rent as it is for the older couple living near a run-down town centre, the shopkeeper in suburbia struggling to make ends meet or the undervalued care worker who has to take the bus to work in the early hours of the morning.
We need to be far clearer that we are on their side as a government whose only objective is to serve ordinary, hardworking people of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.
Labour has already achieved a huge amount. We are introducing new workplace rights, have raised the minimum wage, brought railways back into public ownership, and created thousands of new GP and hospital appointments. But these policies need to be set out as part of a Labour narrative that explains how we are rewiring the country so it works for everyone.
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That doesn’t mean we can avoid tough decisions. We know there is an urgent need to control our borders, and we recognise that the way asylum seekers are housed can cause tensions in local communities. Labour can’t respond to difficult conversations by trying to change the subject. But nor can we allow Reform to set the terms of the debate.
In Farage’s Britain, owning a home would remain out of reach for too many. Millions would be priced out of decent healthcare or run the risk of being fired without due process. Wages would continue to stagnate for all but the richest.
As a full-time, campaigning deputy leader, I would help build the infrastructure this government needs to win the war for attention. I would take the fight to Reform by focusing on who they really are and what they believe.
Farage has been allowed to hog the political microphone all summer. We need to grab it back and start shouting about the Labour principles that drive us. They are values the whole county shares.
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Lucy Powell is a Labour MP and former leader of the House of Commons who is running for deputy leadership of the Labour party
