Building Non-Traditional Support

27 April

 

• Labour launches a sixth election pledge.

 

• It’s a late attempt to appeal to aspirational voters outside south-east England.

 

• Labour’s new leader will have to make the party more relevant those who are striving to improve their lives.

 

 

THE VENUE WAS certainly aspirational. It was Stockton’s equivalent of the Almeida Theatre – the Arc, an arts centre and auditorium. Bean burgers and bruschetta were on the menu of its cafe. Ed Miliband at last had an answer to those critics who said his policies ignored those struggling to get on in life. It was neither a policy for those on benefits, nor for the metropolitan elite. The short-hand sixth pledge was ‘Homes to Buy and Action on Rents’ but the substance was the temporary abolition of stamp duty for all first time buyers purchasing a home worth less than £300,000. So it would be of limited help in high-cost London, but potentially attractive here on Teeside, where Labour were hopeful of ousting James Wharton – the Conservative MP who tried to pilot his EU referendum bill through the last parliament – from his Stockton South seat.

Campaign director Spencer Livermore admitted:

Our policy offer was far too narrowly focused. We all knew it but Ed wanted to campaign on the issues he cared about and that was his prerogative as leader. But we took whatever opportunities we could to broaden the agenda.

Ed Miliband was resistant to using the word ‘aspirational’ – which would become a staple of some of his potential successors’ vocabularies – but the new pledge enabled him to promise to ‘restore the dream of home ownership’.

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Since 2011, some close to him had been pushing him to address an erosion in Labour support amongst what were termed ‘new homemakers’ – and a senior party staffer was shocked to hear that he was indicating that he had little intention ‘to do what my brother would have done.’ So in reality today’s policy was really another ‘back of the fag packet’ retail offer rather than a strategic broadening of the campaign. It had long been decided to unveil a sixth election pledge at some point in the campaign to inject momentum and ensure that any impression of novelty and fresh thinking didn’t die after the manifesto launch. But it had been by no means settled that the pledge would be on housing. To an extent hamstrung by the self-denying ordnance that nothing in the manifesto would require additional borrowing or spending, it was felt that an expensive rabbit – a mink, perhaps – could not be pulled out of a hat later in the campaign. So Ed Balls in particular was said to be sceptical that a low-cost but attractive enough offer on housing could be found. Labour’s sixth pledge in 2005 had been on immigration, where it had been perceived as weak but this time there already was an immigration pledge. There had previously been talk of a fuel duty freeze, as this could drive Labour onto Conservative territory, and might even appeal to owners of those vehicles that Islington’s Emily Thornberry liked to photograph.

In the end, tackling tax avoidance from landlords – and charging non-EU residents a higher rate of stamp duty for property purchases here – raised enough to offer extra help for first time buyers. Labour had criticised the effect on the market of the government’s Help to Buy scheme and plans to extend the right to buy to housing association tenants so now they finally had something more, and more positive, to say to aspiring homeowners. But for some – such as John Prescott, and subsequently Andy Burnham – the policy wasn’t radical enough. They would have preferred to build on schemes which enabled renters to acquire an increasing share in their home until they reached, if they wished, complete ownership. But as one strategist put it: ‘Look, it gave us a decent headline for half a day. And it fulfilled Spencer Livermore’s wish to get us talking about something other than the SNP.’