Forget Corbyn – Labour should be seizing the chance to reinvent itself

Britain needs a modern Left-wing party that embraces consumerism and individual choice

These are the worst of days for Britain’s Left. The Labour Party, fresh from its wipeout in Scotland, is allowing itself to fall for Jeremy Corbyn, a hardcore socialist with views seemingly designed to chase away Middle England. The trade unions, now largely irrelevant to private sector workers, are finding it especially difficult to accept the outcome of the election; some are threatening to break the law in a vain attempt at halting the Tories’ planned anti-union legislation, a suicidal strategy that will merely hasten their final demise.

The rest of the movement is in no better shape. Many activists remain in denial, preferring the comfort of their increasingly farcical Twitter echo chambers to the hard work of redefining what their movement should stand for. The Lib Dems are a pitiful rump. The only part of the broad Left-wing movement that is thriving is the Scottish National Party – but the better it does, the more English voters turn to the Tories, compounding the Left’s crisis.

There is one figure who understands at least part of the problem, of course, but he is so hated by his own party that any advice he proffers is rejected out of hand. Tony Blair, the only man alive to have won an election or three for Labour, got to the nub of the issue in a speech yesterday. The public want a government that empowers them, not one that controls them, he explained, adding that society is now far more individualistic than it used to be. This was already true in 1997, when Mr Blair stormed to victory; 18 years later, with the digital revolution in full swing, it ought to be self-evident.

The Left must therefore make a choice: it could ape Syriza, the Greek populists, and embrace a soft Marxist approach to the economy and foreign policy; it could stick with its approach of the past few years; or it could redefine itself as a consumerist party dedicated to social mobility and personal advancement.

The first option would be a disaster. The last thing the country needs is for the official opposition to be led by an anti-capitalist dinosaur with a shocking attitude to terrorist groups. Labour would split, as it did in 1981; the new, breakaway party might even merge with the Liberal Democrats. The Tories would triumph in 2020, without having to try.

The second option would also flop, albeit less catastrophically without Ed Miliband. It is out of date, defensive and uninspiring. It would do nothing to thwart the Tories’ repositioning as the workers’ party, or to combat the SNP, and would ensure that Labour remained fixated on its core voters, including those on welfare or who work for the public sector. If the Tories don’t disintegrate over Europe, and as long as the economy continues to grow, they would probably win in 2020 with an even bigger majority.

That leaves us with the third option. The starting point would be to accept modern British society as it is: we are an aspirational, not especially ideological people who want to better ourselves, live well and help our families. We want to earn and consume more, own our homes, enjoy better health and look after our children; we profoundly dislike criminals and terrorists and wish to feel that we have control over the political decisions taken on our behalf.

Labour’s answer to this new reality ought to be to reinvent itself as the consumers’ party, dedicated to helping people improve their quality of life and achieve their goals in a nonideological fashion. It would treat the public like grown-ups who require a helping hand, not as supplicants in need of a hand-out or sheep in need of herding. Labour would retain its interventionist, social-democratic instincts; but it would work with, rather than against, market forces.

Its guiding principles should be consumerism, personal advancement and direct democracy. The revolution would start with the public sector: a born-again Labour Party would back radical personalisation in public services and a dramatic increase in choice. Hospitals would be told to operate across seven days; the party would turn itself into a consumer watchdog, though without the Miliband-style price controls. The aim would be to deliver the best, most appropriate services to individuals, and to harness technology to help this happen. Gone would be opposition to free schools, the party’s traditional hostility to private sector involvement in state-provided services and the idea that Labour should support producer interests in the NHS or local councils.

Just as importantly, this transformed, forward-looking Labour party would finally embrace homeownership. The party would cease to see itself as the voice of tenants; instead, it would outmanoeuvre the Tories by promising to build twice as many homes as them. The aim would be to bring down prices by increasing supply, helping hundreds of thousands of younger people to take their first step on the housing ladder. The target would be to build 250,000-300,000 homes a year indefinitely, with all options to achieve that goal on the table. Labour’s new buzzwords should be affordability and convenience. It should ditch HS2 and pledge to fight for motorists and urban rail commuters. It should promise to build an entire new toll-financed motorway, and not to increase fuel tax. It should back an extra runway at Heathrow and additional airport capacity elsewhere, and depict those who disagree as enemies of cheaper air travel. Green policies would be ditched, replaced by a focus on lower energy prices.

Last but not least, a transformed Labour Party should embrace direct democracy: open primaries would become the norm, voters would be able to trigger Swiss-style referendums, and there would be a fully-fledged right of recall for rogue or unpopular MPs. The party would cease its slavish support for the EU: there is nothing inherently Left-wing in transferring so much power to a supranational bureaucracy.

Radical? Certainly. Unthinkable? I hope not. Britain needs a modern, Left-wing party that embraces prosperity, technology and consumer sovereignty. If the Labour Party wants to become electable once more, it must reject the mirage that is Corbynism and focus instead on empowering consumers to achieve their dreams.