The PM must act quickly to deliver for the workers he now represents
It is not so much the weight of the majority that is remarkable but the places that carried it home. Don Valley, Rother Valley, Leigh and Bolsover – these working-class constituencies broke the habit of a century when they abandoned Labour on Thursday. With their votes they promise to remake the supposed party of wealth and privilege that now represents apprentices, manual workers and a host of rugby league towns.
After Thursday, the party controls both seats in Blackpool, home to eight of Britain’s 10 poorest neighbourhoods, and a hundred other constituencies in the lowest five deciles of deprivation. In 2001, only 14 of these most deprived seats were blue. This is a party of the many, not the few.
Geographically, the Tories’ centre of gravity headed north from London’s commuter belt to the Midlands as Labour’s old heartlands tumbled. A third of seats in the North East are now Tory, three times the historic average. In the West Midlands, the share has tripled in the last 20 years. Only in Scotland did the party fall back.
This realignment has been a long time coming. Of course, Brexit smelted down old political loyalties and helped new tribes to assemble. But the Tories have been quicker to assimilate the underlying sea change in attitudes that the referendum reflected – away from post-Sixties liberalisation and toward an era of security, community and belonging. In an age of globalisation, automation and mass immigration, voters want protection from the turbulence, not greater freedom to be buffeted by it.
This is strongest in the places most buffeted in the past: the towns whose plant machinery lie dormant, whose high streets are half empty and whose pride has been lost since the mines, steelworks and factories closed.
With honourable exceptions such as Lisa Nandy and Jon Cruddas, Labour has been deaf to its own voters. The millennial socialism of free broadband and universal basic income may appeal to young, urban graduates but it is lost on a traditional working class concerned about public services, job security and their family.
As a result, former miners and shop stewards in Workington, Blyth Valley and Bishop Auckland returned Tory MPs for the first time in history.
It is a tremendous responsibility and a historic opportunity. As Boris Johnson said on Friday: “These people wanted change. We cannot, must not, let them down. And in delivering change, we must change too.”
The Prime Minister knows he must recognise the priorities his new voting base demands. The manifesto was tightly drafted but directionally it was clear: public services; infrastructure and investment to transform regional productivity; and action to tackle crime, curb immigration and restore a sense of community. Mr Johnson must now put pedal to the metal. A term in Parliament is not a long time to fix Britain’s productivity crisis or reverse regional economic decline. The Government must throw the kitchen sink at bringing opportunity and investment to its new heartlands.
The economics should be trickle-up, not down. Industrial strategy, for too long captured by corporatism, must be harnessed for clusters outside of the South East. Like Ireland and states in the US, every instrument of the state should be deployed to attract foreign investment and jobs. Social policy should actively seek to rebuild family, neighbourhood and nation.
Childcare and social care must be fixed. Powers and budgets should be devolved to mayors, councils and communities to let people take back control of issues that matter to them.
The PM has five years and all the political capital he needs. He must seize the opportunity and root conservatism firmly in the common good.
Will Tanner is director of the think tank Onward, whose report, The Politics of Belonging, identified Workington Man
The Prime Minister is right that he has an overwhelming mandate to get Brexit done and move this country forward. At last. As we built Conservatives for Britain and Vote Leave, we never foresaw the range and depth of trouble which would be caused by the fundamentally Blairite governing elite. They had demanded we accept the 2016 referendum result. I failed to ask if they would.
Well, they have now tried, through every method in Parliament and the courts, to stop Brexit: and failed. Along the way, their campaign of delegitimisation, demonisation and demoralisation has done immeasurable damage to the fabric of our country. I never thought they would get so far or do such harm.
We beat them despite their having every advantage. Remain spent twice as much, including the government leaflet. Every institution seemed to be on their side. Every major party leader was for Remain. Still they were beaten.
It is hardly surprising the most popular policy at this election was to leave with a deal and get on with centre-ground politics.
Let there be no mistake: Corbyn and McDonnell dream of utopia and celebrate attempts to get there. For them past attempts were never “real” socialism after they inevitably failed. How long will the Labour Party tolerate embodying this monstrous folly?
There is my challenge to the opponents of Brexit: save the centre Left.
Too many powerful individuals and
‘Powers and budgets should be devolved to let people take back control of issues that matter to them’