IPPR’s report comes after heavy local elections loses which saw Labour win one in five votes while Reform UK won one in three.
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Labour and parties of the left worldwide must develop a “project” to defeat populist challengers like Reform UK, a think tank with links to Keir Starmer’s party has warned.
In a report published this week, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said Labour’s sharp fall in the opinion polls and recent local election losses are part of a Western trend of progressives “losing ground” in votes and ideas to the populist radical right.
The think tank, which has close links to Downing Street, said progressives must work together to “develop a 21st century identity for the centre-left” in the face of rising populism.
Nick Garland, associate fellow at IPPR and a former speech writer for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, told PoliticsHome that the report was an attempt to take a “broader” look at what it describes as a lack of a “progressive political project since the 2008 financial crisis”.
He said that centre-left parties must adapt to a world where the economy is weaker than it was when former Labour prime minister Tony Blair enjoyed electoral success.
“When New Labour came in, there were lots of ideas around, there was a defined programme of how to govern from the centre-left, and that was largely keeping a post-Thatcher economic framework in place with some tweaks to it,” he said.
“And then, because of strong economic growth and relative geopolitical stability, an ability to invest a lot in public services.
“Obviously, that strategy ran into a wall in 2008, and then ever since there’s been this intermittent conversation about the European or global centre-left being in crisis, a lack of project — particularly what do progressives do when there isn’t prosperity.”
In IPPR’s new report, the think tank argues there are three “big challenges” that progressives need to address and “master” as part of a new approach: national borders are being reasserted; broken faith in markets; and a lack of common ground in society.
The intervention comes amid an ongoing debate within Labour over what direction it should pursue in the wake of heavy losses on 1 May and Reform’s rise in the polls.
Labour lost over 180 councillors earlier this month, many to Reform candidates, as well as losing the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, also to Reform.
Research shared exclusively with PoliticsHome last week found that over half of the 2024 Labour vote is considering switching to the Liberal Democrats or the Greens — suggesting that by targeting Reform voters, Starmer’s party risks losing support to smaller perceived parties of the left.
Dr Parth Patel, associate director at IPPR, warned that centre-left parties trying to “imitate their opponents” will not produce electoral success.
“Progressives are losing ground not only in the battle of votes but the battle of ideas against the populist radical right,” he said.
“They are stealing the left’s claim as the go-to people to change society…
“Progressive parties are seen as defenders of the status quo, instead of vehicles of change.
“The problem is that the progressive engine of ideas seems to have run out of steam. When leaders don’t appear to have new ideas, they reach back for old ones or imitate their opponents. That will not work at a moment of great change and challenge.”
David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary, said that “questions being asked in this IPPR report open up discussion in a way that should help those with the power to shape the country’s future”.
“Get it right and you get a virtuous circle of social, political and economic renewal, in which security and opportunity reinforce each other,” he said.
“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.”
