Labour has “ceded the political megaphone” and needs to give better account of its “purpose, values and record”, deputy leader Lucy Powell has concluded in her post-mortem of the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Powell held a post-mortem call with Labour members and activists last week to thank them for their efforts in the Greater Manchester seat, in which Labour fell to third behind the Greens and Reform UK, and to brief them on the findings of the party’s post-election analysis. She painted a stark picture of a party that “suffered from a large protest with voters telling us to do better, be stronger about our purpose and values, and deliver the change we promised faster and more clearly,” but with a silver lining: those voters are open to being won back.
Protest voters have told Labour in their subsequent research that they are still open to voting for the party, but wanted to express their frustration and disappointment with the government. Labour’s data and post-result analysis also showed that a high number of voters made up their mind in the final few days and hours of the campaign.
The two biggest reasons for not voting Labour were the belief that the Greens were better-placed to keep Reform out, and protest voting to send Labour a message. Powell said this was clear across the constituency, noting that the Greens outperformed Labour among white working class voters, not just with “urban, liberal” voters.
Labour’s analysis suggests opinion polls later in the campaign and high visibility campaigning persuaded residents that the Greens were the tactical choice to keep Reform out.
Powell has previously said that Shabana Mahmood’s controversial immigration policies were “a real concern to our ethnic minority communities” and “came up a lot” on the doorstep during the by-election campaign. On the post-mortem call Powell said a number of other issues were raised on the doorstep, but it’s not clear yet from Labour’s research whether these individually were decisive factors in the result.
Labour’s deputy leader – who won election to the position at the end of last year after Angela Rayner’s cabinet resignation – is an increasingly influential figure in the party despite holding no formal role in government. She is seen as a member of the “soft left”, pushing the party to adopt a more progressive stance and not to forget the voters it is haemorrhaging to its left.
“I’ve heard many hot takes on what happened in the by-election, from many who weren’t even there,” Powell told activists on the call. “The clear lesson for us is that we must give people a reason to vote Labour and give a better account of our purpose, values and record. We’ve ceded the political megaphone and our task now is to show that we are the only force in British politics able and willing to deliver the progressive change – in the interests of the many, not the few – that the majority of people want to see. And that we will strongly contest the divisive, wrong-headed politics of Reform and the Tories that would set the country back.”
[Further reading: The rise of the undecided voter]
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