When Labour goes into government, everyone goes into government
They are areas where we feel we can gather ideas for policies round issues people are facing. “We’re leading from the Treasury team first of all. That means we’ll go along with our statistics and say, ‘This is what the stats say, what do you say as local people?’ The first discussions will be on the economy.
“What we know already is that insecure employment, low pay and heavy costs are issues.
“The fabric of local communities is falling apart. There’s no sense of hope.
“So we want to find out what the problems are and give people the solutions.” Mr McDonnell believes people are proud of their areas but haven’t been given the means to develop them properly. And he feels years of neglect have taken their toll.
He added: “The expression that keeps coming back is, ‘The Government has run this area down’.
“So we want to draw up local prospectuses. What plans should we bring in as the Government?
“Our view, when we go into government next time, is that our manifesto will be a national manifesto based on those local discussions.
“We’ll also be publishing local manifestos in particular areas.
“It’s a new form of democracy, democratising the whole process.” Mr McDonnell gave the example of a visit to Pendle in Lancashire.
He said: “Employment has increased but it’s all very low-paid and insecure. They were saying, ‘We know what the problem is: one of the local rail lines closed under Beeching’.
“If we could get it reopened that’s east-west traffic and then we’re away.
“That’s the wisdom of crowds and what we want to tap into.
“When we go into the next election everyone will know what they will get. We can’t give people the confidence that we can transform the nation if we can’t give them the power to transform their local area.”
The fabric of Britain’s local communities is falling apart. There is no sense of hope JOHN MCDONNELL SHADOW CHANCELLOR