POLITICS is about two things — the principles that sustain us, and winning elections so that we can put those principles into practice. The Labour Party was founded to provide the union movement with parliamentary representation. Our forbears knew that principle and protest without electoral success was futile.

Some wish to frame this leadership election as a false choice between winning elections or delivering on our principles, but we can only truly act on our values when we win the support of the country. After the great 1945 Labour government was elected, Clement Attlee reportedly said: “You will be judged by what you succeed at, gentlemen, not by what you attempt.”

He was right. And the achievements of that government and the Labour governments that have come since trump anything our party might manage in opposition.

Make no mistake, the need for a Labour government is greater than ever before. We face a Tory Party waging an ideological crusade against the state and our public services. We face an emboldened government which has used our electoral defeat to mount an undemocratic assault on the trade union movement. We face policies like the bedroom tax and cuts to working tax credits that are more about punishing the poor than balancing the books. The longer the Tories are in power in this country, the longer the political charge sheet against them will grow, while their misdeeds become ever harder to reverse.

Only by beating the Tories can we begin to tackle some of our nation’s greatest ills.

Yet while the Labour Party recognises and attacks — rightly — the realities and risks of a Tory government, we’ve spent too little time talking about the hopeful alternative. Labour wins not when we are pessimistic about our future, but when we’re focused on the open, confident — and more equal — country that we can build.

The scale of the challenge we face demands boldness and radicalism. A timid offer to the British people isn’t the alternative.

We need to put an end to the inequalities that set in at birth. The Tories have cut inheritance tax to promote inherited wealth — I’ve said that we would spend that money instead on tackling inherited disadvantage through a revolution in early years care.

We must eliminate low pay — because poverty wages are an outrage in a modern, wealthy nation. So we must drive up wages by giving greater powers to the Low Pay Commission and build a real living wage society. And we must give our public service workers the decent pay rise they need and deserve at a time when so much is being asked of them.

We need to build a more caring society where families get the support they need to look after their elderly and disabled loved ones, and with fully joined up NHS and social care. And we have to tackle low pay in the care sector — because those who care for our loved ones should be paid the decent wage their crucial work deserves, rather than struggling to afford the basics.

We need to build a future of hope for our young people. We must unleash their talents in every corner of Britain, so they have the skills, networks, chances and choices to get the jobs of the future. And we can take on the tremendous challenge of climate change and become a world leader in green energy.

Perhaps most importantly of all, we can break down the ever more centralising power structures of the British state — built up over decades — and begin a transformational devolution of power out of Whitehall and into our communities and neighbourhoods. A genuine move away from the bureaucratic state and towards a country rooted in real people power, so that you have the greatest possible power over the issues that impact on your life in an often uncertain world.

Only by radically changing where power lies will we make Britain a more equal place in which to live. I want to revive the Labour tradition of people power, taking us back to our party’s roots in trade unions, co-operatives and mutuals. I want to give voice to millions of people who see the changes they want to make in the world but feel powerless to do so. And I want to see workers having a far greater say over and stake in the companies they work for.

I’m not offering myself as leader because I believe I have all of the answers that Britain seeks — I’m standing because I believe that knowledge lies with the British people.

There are only a few weeks left until the end of the Labour leadership contest. The result will define not just the future of the Labour Party but of our country too. Our movement must choose which direction we take next — and the choice we make will have a profound impact on the lives we all lead in the decades ahead.

WHAT DO OUR PANELISTS THINK?

Neil Clark – Director, Campaign for Public Ownership

LIZ KENDALL is right that “the need for a Labour government is greater than ever before,” but the need is for a real Labour government, committed to public ownership, collectivism and a peaceful foreign policy, not one that would merely offer us reheated Blairism.

Significantly, Kendall makes no mention of public ownership, even though renationalising the railways and the utilities are popular policies which would help Labour to win power.

She says she wants to make Britain “a more equal place to live” but there is no pledge to increase taxes on the wealthy.

She quotes Clement Attlee, but Attlee won a landslide in 1945 by offering a democratic socialist programme with public ownership at its core.

Kendall says — quite correctly — “the scale of the challenge we face demands boldness and radicalism,” but, if we look at the details, there is sadly little evidence of either boldness or radicalism in what she proposes.

Kate Hudson – General secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

THIS article doesn’t give a rounded understanding of Liz Kendall’s politics. There is no clue to how she sees Britain’s role in the world.

There is nothing about what she thinks about war — which is no small question when the bombing of Syria is on the agenda. And nothing about nuclear weapons, and that’s pretty important too, given that under her leadership, Labour MPs would have to vote on whether or not to spend £100 billion on a replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons system.

As she doesn’t mention these crucial factors, let me shed some light on what we might expect. Not an MP until 2010, Kendall wasn’t in Parliament for the crucial votes on Iraq in 2003 or Trident in 2007.

However, she voted for bombing Iraq in 2014 and for replacing Trident in 2015. So that doesn’t augur well for where she would stand on these questions as party leader.

Liz Payne – Secretary, National Assembly of Women

LIZ KENDALL talks about the importance of not only having principles but being able to put them into practice by winning elections. Yes, but it’s what those principles are that really matters and there’s only one principle at stake in this contest in Britain today — that of representing the interests of the working class and doing so continually. 

This isn’t just about winning support for a one-off vote either. It’s about continuing to listen to and act on the interests of the majority of people in this country for the whole period you are in office. This hasn’t been happening and people are looking for that representation, without which there can be no democracy.

So far as women in Britain are concerned, the issues are particularly sharply focused. Women are disproportionately suffering the effects of severe exploitation and vicious cuts to their jobs and the services on which they rely. They are also disproportionately ignored in the political system. This is what must be addressed and women are looking for some real change.

• This comment is in a personal capacity.
  

Nick Matthews – Chair, Co-operatives UK

To be fair, Liz Kendall, a Co-op Party member, has talked about co-ops from first being elected.

In the 2014 Policy Network book, Laying the Foundations for a Labour Century, supported by shop workers’ union Usdaw and edited by Kendall and Lab/Co-op MP (and Progress chair) John Woodcock, is a chapter by her and Steve Reed on people-powered public services which includes references to co-ops.

However these ideas are rather vague. Getting venture capital out of services like adult social care is a key objective, but the devil is in the how.

There are co-op options but they require legal definition and changes to procurement rules to stop them being a staging post to privatisation. In order to work her ideas need much firmer foundations.

Ben Chacko – Editor, Morning Star

LIZ KENDALL is right that the need for a Labour government is greater than ever, but her belief that it can only “win the support of the country” by lurching to the right defies all the evidence.

She attacks the Tories for an “ideological crusade” against public services, yet has publicly endorsed that ideology by defending private-sector involvement in the NHS and the removal of schools from local democratic control.

There is nothing to suggest that aping the Conservatives like this wins elections, and even if it did it is not clear how working people would benefit from a Kendall government which would extend privatisation and cut social security.

It is indeed a false choice to say you have to decide between winning elections and sticking to your principles.

The Labour Party and labour movement can do both, but if it surrenders to the poisonous propaganda of its opponents it will do neither.

Rob Griffiths – General Secretary, Communist Party of Britain

APART from the obligatory anti-Tory rhetoric, Liz Kendall says little with which George “living wage” Osborne would publicly disagree.

Her support for the cruel Welfare Bill inspires no confidence that she would resolutely oppose a new batch of anti-union laws, let alone repeal any existing ones. Only a much more progressive tax system and selective public ownership would help create a fairer and sustainable society — and here she proposes nothing but the Tory and old New Labour status quo.

The subsidised “free” and public schools and railways, the rip-off energy utilities, the privatised and PFI hospitals, the nuclear weapons — all would continue unchallenged by a Labour Party under Kendall’s leadership.

There would be little to attract the millions of electors who have deserted Labour for the Greens, SNP, Ukip or given up voting altogether.