Labour ‘should not aim to copy right-wing populism but offer alternatives’

Labour should not copy the ideas of rising right-wing populists following its poor showing in local elections, but counter them with a bold, progressive agenda, the latest report by an influential think tank warns.

The Government cannot simply retry the ideas of past Labour administrations in the modern era if it wants to hold onto power, the Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) also said in its latest research, backed by former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband.

The report can be read as somewhat of a counter to groups like Blue Labour, which have suggested ministers adopt some of the ideas and language of the party’s opponents on the political right in order to counter the rise of populist parties like Reform UK.

Following the May local elections, in which Labour lost a broad swathe of council seats across England to Reform UK, ministers have emphasised action to tackle migration and crime, policy areas where Reform leader Nigel Farage has sought to present a tough front.

The IPPR, which was influential on policy during the Blair and Brown governments and has seen several of its staff move into Sir Keir Starmer’s administration, warned the “forward march of populism is in full swing” in its report titled “Facing the future”.

Labour should “shift from defence to offence, from reactive to proactive, from apology to confidence”, and show itself to be “a disruptor, not defender, of the status quo” in order to combat its insurgent political foes, it said.

The report, which is directed not just at Labour, but progressive parties across the Western world, suggested ministers face a hard task because “the progressive engine of ideas seems to have run out of steam”.

“When parties don’t have new ideas, they reach back for old ones, or imitate others. Neither of these approaches will work at a moment of great change and challenge,” it said.

In a stark warning not to rehash the ideas of New Labour, or even older Labour governments, the IPPR added that progressives “cannot simply reach back to yesterday’s men in search of their ideas, goals and policies”.

“Their world has dissolved, so their ideas are out of date,” the report added.

The rising importance of national borders, broken faith in the global financial markets, and a lack of common public ground due to the fragmented way people now read the news, are among the reasons Labour cannot simply attempt to re-hash the so-called “Third Way” of politics it championed in the 1990s and 2000s, the IPPR said.

The populist right’s brand is meanwhile boosted when Labour and other progressive parties attempt to ape their ideas, the think tank warned.

“The challenge is to address the changes and grievances they speak to, but with progressive ideas and solutions,” it added.

David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary and brother to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, gave his backing to the research.

Mr Miliband, who wrote the report’s foreword, said adopting new ideas could lead Labour to oversee a “virtuous circle of social, political and economic renewal, in which security and opportunity reinforce each other”.

He added: “That is what happened after Labour was elected in 1945 and 1997, and what is needed again. The policies of those periods are time-bound; no one is suggesting those policies should be regurgitated. But the lessons in how new ideas can power new politics are important.”

The report concludes by saying Labour and its political allies around the world must now discuss and share progressive ideas for governing in the near future, a period which could be “destabilising”.

The Labour Government, because of the long period before the next general election is expected to take place, has a chance to play a “co-ordinating role” in these efforts, it added.