Written by Sadly it isn’t a journey of engagement with a Labour led government, but a renewed period of opposition – lets hope it doesn’t become unduly introspective as we all endeavour to work out what worked, and what did not – and more importantly what’s required to win in 2020.
As a Co-Founder of Labour: Coast & Country, I’m firmly of the belief that we need to be able to engage and speak with the whole country – One Nation is a good and also positive ambition – and that we need to be able to win the majority of the new towns, the coastal towns and the market towns. They are where we have historically won majority government. Get that right in England and we may not have to win all of Scotland back in one go, something that seems a monstrous challenge at this stage in the game.
We must play our part in the Party’s review on this election, and in plans to ensure we are as electable as possible – from Harwich to Haverfordwest, from Plymouth to Pitlochry.
It is good to see that the Party’s initial steps will include Leadership Hustings in the coast and country communities, as proposed by Harriet Harman; and it is also good to see Jamie Reed making the point to all of his colleagues that “the next Labour leader must listen to the marginalised, peripheral communities of our country as the United Kingdom risks disintegrating before us.“
Both interventions suggest our ambition for a Labour Party that wins in coast and country can rise from the lessons of 2015.
If you think communities of the coast and of the country are part of Labour’s 2020 government please join us, and contribute to making that a reality.
Hywel Lloyd is founder of Labour: Coast & Country
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, the Labour: Coast & Country