Open Letter to Labour Party Members
I am standing for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party. And I am seeking your support.
As someone whose background, foreground, mainland and hinterland are working class, I joined a Party which understands that in order to effect change it must not become a narrow class-based organisation. We have been at our most successful when we have signalled our determination to win political power by building an alliance of all sections of society.
I am a product of the trade union movement. Not an unquestioning sentimentalist - agreeing with a proposition because it happens to be made by a trade union leader. But a believer in the fundamental good sense and decency of working people, who would have little voice or influence in our society without the Unions' vital link with the Party.
In my 32 year membership I've seen dogma almost destroy our Party from within, while the right-wing ideologues of the Tory party were left to almost destroy the social fabric of our country from Whitehall. I will never forget those wilderness years when our philosophy seemed to be "no compromise with the electorate".
We have secured three successive election victories not by compromising our values - but by re-discovering our heritage: what Attlee called "the triumph of reasonableness and practicality over doctrinaire impossibilism".
It's not a slogan to set to music but it is the key to winning the trust of the nation.
And we have not just occupied the political centre ground; we've shifted it to the left. The minimum wage, international development, devolution, family-friendly policies, outlawing discrimination, investing in public services and full employment are all seen now as mainstream policies on which our opponents seek to stake a claim.
We have changed the terms of the debate but the Tories havenít changed. They are the same people with the same mindset that turned Britain into the squalid, greedy, ìme firstî society of the 1980ís.
We will defeat them by defending and extending our hold on the progressive mainstream ñ by going further in our quest to eradicate child and pensioner poverty, by pursuing greater equality and more fluid social mobility. These are vital policy areas in which I believe passionately. Social justice is not just advantageous for those who benefit directly; it profits everyone. It defines the kind of country that we live in.
There is much to be done internally. We need to revitalise and increase our membership, resolve the party funding problem and develop fresh ideas for campaigning effectively in a computer literate society.
The key role of the Deputy, however, must be subordinate to and supportive of the Leader; to carry out whatever duties the Leader sees as being essential to securing a fourth term of office. I am not putting myself forward for Leader - not least because thereís a more experienced and obvious candidate. But I will be able to assist, support, cajole and complement the person who carries the heaviest of all political burdens.
That requires a constant dialogue with all parts of our movement - the PLP, the Unions and the constituencies. A two-way process of communicating our achievements and our vision, but also listening and learning from all sections from Labour students to pensioner forums.
Many of us have been shaped by our experience of poverty, inequality and the injustice of a society that still too often puts privilege before ability. We need to show that with Labour every child really does matter, regardless of their background. It's this quest to do the best for Britain that unites us and would make it a personal privilege for me to serve as your Deputy Leader.
I believe that we can turn the potentially perilous process of changing the leadership in the middle of our third consecutive term of office into a beneficial transformation that inspires our homeland seats, shores up our marginals and takes us to a fourth election victory.
I can help to make that happen. I hope you will support me in my deputy leadership campaign.
Yours sincerely,
Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP