Revision Update: UK Politics: Labour as a One-Nation Party?

There was an interesting turn of events at the Labour party conference in 2012 when Ed Miliband used the term to “one nation” to describe his party. The phrase originates from as long ago as the nineteenth century when the Conservative leader, Benjamin Disraeli, sought to drag his party back from the political wilderness and to connect with the newly enfranchised working class. He warned of the dangers of two nations divided into the rich and the poor. One nation Conservatism then was used to describe a Conservative ideology which justified state intervention on paternalistic grounds to lesson income and wealth divisions. Ironically, similarities may be made with Cameron’s “compassionate Conservatism”.

Miliband was opportunistically seeking to portray the Conservative party as elitist with jibes such as “a tax cut for millionaires, made by millionaires” with regard to the 2012 budget and “you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS”.

This highlighted the core value of equality as Miliband stated “I would never accept an economy where the gap between rich and poor just grows wider and wider. In One Nation, inequality matters.”

The fact that Miliband was attempting to reach out to all, rich and poor, might suggest that Labour are moving to the centre and that the “Ed the red” label that was in use at the time of his election as leader, does not reflect the direction he wants to move the party in.

Miliband stated that there would need to be public sector pay restraint indicating that the Labour party would not be blinkered and open to accusations of being in the pocket of the trade unions.

Similarly, Miliband adopted a more pro-business approach and toned down his attacks on “predatory” capitalism.

Whilst government finances being put on a sound footing might be regarded as a move to the right, there was evidence of some old Labour policies with a pledge to end the “free market experiment” with the NHS with a repeal of the Conservatives reforms.

It would seem fair to say that this conference speech was not a Clause IV moment in the sense that it represented a new direction for the Labour party. Indeed although the speech was well received and was a personal triumph for Ed Miliband, in content and ideological terms it really just represented an affirmation of Labour’s centrist policies which has been already established. By the time of the Eastleigh by election in 2013, there was no sign that Labour had been able to penetrate the south and appeal to a new cohort of voters.