People’s party once more

Losing the election was a chastening moment for Labour, admits Ed Miliband, who is now engaged in a countrywide conversation to ensure that the party successfully reconnects with voters.

The Labour Party suffered a difficult year in 2010. Although we did many important things in government, we were told by the electorate that after 13 years we’d lost our way; that we’d lost touch and we’d lost trust. For a party and a movement with a history such as ours, those are not easy lessons to swallow.

Yet we have entered 2011 with cause for optimism. Over 50,000 people have joined Labour since the general election last May. We have gained council seats in byelections across the country, including in areas where we have not historically been strong. And we have taken the first steps on the journey of reforming our policy and our party’s organisation.

Politics will always be powered by people, people who volunteer to give up their evenings and weekends because they want to protect the things that matter to their communities – like their Sure Start children’s centres, their local libraries or their Citizens’ Advice Bureaux. I’m proud that that civic involvement, that spirit of volunteerism, is the foundation of the Labour Party. It ensures that anyone who sees injustice in their community can get involved to make a change. That’s a spirit our party needs to harness and direct now, as numerous protest groups emerge in the coming months and years.

At the same time, Labour must become the people’s party once again. We must immerse ourselves in communities, fight on people’s own terms, and challenge established views where they still hold this country back – because we all know that politics is too remote from people’s lives, and that must change.

That’s why I’m having conversations with people up and down the country, meeting people in every region to discuss the big issues they face – about jobs and wages; about housing security; about crime; about how we help the next generation to do better; and about care for elderly or disabled relatives.

And that’s why I’m listening to people’s ideas, answering their questions and learning about how people up and down Britain are being affected by the decisions made in Westminster – and how government can respond better to the challenges they face. Labour’s challenge in 2011 is to lead the debate in this country about our national values; about how we build a better and more equal society; how we fulfil that timeless British promise that the next generation should always do better than the last.

That is my task as leader in 2011 and beyond – to reconnect our party with the country so we are once again a strong voice for people in tough times; to win elections in Scotland and Wales and do well in the local elections in May; and to once again build a party ready to govern.

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