Progress rally speech ? Stephen Twigg | Progress | News and ...

Thank you to Progress

To Rob Philpot, Richard Angell, Matthew Faulding, Simon Jeffrey, Adam Harrison and Alex White for putting on an excellent line-up of events at conference

Congratulations to the new strategy board members

It?s great to see Progress going from strength to strength

History is weighted against our task

As Lewis Baston points out in the new Progress Pamphlet Marginal Difference: ?Each time Labour has been ejected from government since 1945, it has lost support at the election following the first Tory term.?

We will not achieve our objective of a one term opposition by relying on a failing government

I want this evening to issue a call to action

What do we need to win?

? A radical policy offer that rejects the dogma of austerity but that is fiscally sound and takes on vested interests

? A clear vision for the Britain we want to create

? And crucially we also need a movement that will deliver our message and show voters how Labour will make a difference in their communities

Party renewal

The party is going through a process of renewal

I want to say three things about our strengths as a party and set out three key challenges

Strengths

1. Party unity

The party is firmly united behind Ed Miliband

We have rejected the temptation to be inward-looking and to fight among ourselves

2. New talent and experienced heads

I am heartened that experienced heads, the likes of Jon Cruddas and Andrew Adonis, are at the heart of Labour?s policy review

We must draw on the experience of them and others

We must also draw encouragement from new talent ? Marvin Rees, many in the 2010 intake and also among our PPCs, councillors and activist base

I am delighted that Jessica Asato, former director of Progress, has been selected as Labour?s prospective parliamentary candidate for Norwich North. I know that Jessica will bring her drive and energy and that there are many other PPCs building coalitions of supporters and taking the fight to our political opponents.

3. Appetite for a change in the way we campaign

The old mantra of one more push will not do

Not in terms of political strategy and not in terms of how we organise and mobilise as a political movement

We need to transform the party into an outward looking organisation, rooted in our communities, making a difference throughout the life-cycle of a Parliament and not just at elections

We have demonstrated pockets of excellence. The Progress? pamphlet Organising to Win published in June 2010 showed how seats like Birmingham Edgbaston, Wirral South and Bassetlaw defied Lord Ashcroft?s millions.

Challenges

Reforming the Labour party is not without challenges

They must be confronted

I have three challenges for you to take away

1. ?Voter ID plus?

Identifying our core voters allows us to focus our resources on polling day

It is an important part of our organisational strategy but it is not enough

The challenge is creating a campaigning culture in your CLP of ?Voter ID Plus?

Getting the bread and butter stuff right but also being innovative in the way we campaign. Thinking differently about the issues that local people care about and not being preoccupied with the latest issue dominating the blogosphere

We need to share good practice and we should use Progress? excellent networks to do this

2. Confronting vested interests

Organisational change means confronting vested interests

We too must confront our own vested interests

When I speak to activists from across the country- particularly young and enthusiastic members ? I still hear too many stories of process and procedure stifling action

It is all of our responsibility to challenge this.

We must talk out to our communities and not be preoccupied among ourselves

Of the new members since 2010, a third of these are under 27. My challenge to the more experienced amongst us is to mentor and support these members

And to build Labour Supporters? Networks in constituencies up and down the country. If we can get hundreds and thousands of Labour supporters signed up, we strengthen our relationship with local communities. And we should then look to reform our party to give supporters a bigger say- perhaps starting with the London mayoral selection for 2016.

3. Supporting our marginal candidates

It?s a big challenge

MPs and CLPs should be twinning with marginal seats

These are the seats that offer our path back to power

Progress was formed in the mid-1990s with two goals

1.???? To work flat out for a Labour victory

2.???? To lead grassroots support for Labour in government

These goals are as relevant today as they were in 1997.

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Stephen Twigg MP is shadow secretary of state for education and honorary president of Progress

Labour, Labour party conference 2012, Progress, Stephen Twigg

Source: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2012/09/30/progress-rally-speech-stephen-twigg/

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