In September 2017, Bridget Phillipson took to the pages of the New Statesman to burst the feel-good bubble that Labour occupied after that yr’s election. That wasn’t a trendy factor to do then: “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” had soundtracked the occasion’s summer season, generally sung by the chief’s former foes.n
However in her 4,000-word essay, Phillipson sounded some unashamedly discordant notes. First, deploying the argument later made well-known by Morgan McSweeney, she famous the inefficiency of Labour’s vote: the occasion had gained simply 4 extra seats than when it misplaced in 2010. Second, she questioned whether or not the 2017 manifesto – then a quasi-sacred doc – was as progressive as recommended.
“Our manifesto both left most of George Osborne’s profit freeze intact, or hid an absence of funded plans to reverse these cuts behind a fudged dedication to reviewing them,” lamented Phillipson. “If we’re severe in regards to the redistribution of energy, wealth and alternative, we’ve to be severe about in-work poverty and the residing requirements of working individuals and their youngsters. A Labour Social gathering that’s genuinely for the various and never the few ought to prioritise that above the rapid abolition of charges for college training.”
It was the language of priorities – described by Nye Bevan because the “faith of socialism” – and it has guided Phillipson as Training Secretary. Whereas elevating tuition charges from £9,250 to £9,535 (and linking them to inflation), she has championed measures such because the growth of free college meals to half 1,000,000 extra youngsters and the abolition of the two-child profit cap within the face of extra sceptical cupboard colleagues (“I’ve needed to struggle tooth and nail,” Phillipson informed me earlier this yr).
For this, MPs, together with those that backed her deputy management opponent Lucy Powell, give Phillipson credit score. “This was not a accomplished deal from the beginning, it required a number of argument and Bridget making the case,” an ally says.
After being appointed co-chair of the Baby Poverty Taskforce final yr, Phillipson regarded it as untenable for Labour to enter the subsequent election with no sea change in coverage. The technique printed in the present day, which extends childcare to extra households on Common Credit score and imposes new limits on short-term lodging, is the consequence: the Decision Basis forecasts that youngster poverty charges will now fall in 2026-27, the primary discount in 9 years (outdoors of the pandemic), and that greater than half 1,000,000 youngsters will probably be lifted out of poverty by 2029-30, the largest discount in a single parliament.
For Phillipson, who noticed her mom pushed into poverty for need of childcare, this has at all times been a private and an ethical trigger. “I noticed plenty of actually good individuals who have been my associates not reaching all that they might as a result of their households didn’t have a lot cash and since crime was excessive. I felt a way of basic unfairness,” she informed me.
Confronted by a sceptical public – 59 per cent of who again the two-child cap – that is the argument that Phillipson will now make: that youngster poverty is each an ethical injustice and a societal waste. If the state doesn’t pay now, she’s going to warn, it should pay later as worklessness and sick well being proliferate.
It’s a trigger that aligns Phillipson with the final Labour authorities, which decreased youngster poverty by 600,000, and which she has lengthy championed (whereas remaining sceptical of Tony Blair’s later public service reforms).
At first of this yr, the Training Secretary appeared marginalised as her college reforms confronted each inside and exterior resistance (with now-departed No 10 coverage director Liz Lloyd amongst her opponents). However critically, as rumours of her imminent sacking turned ubiquitous, she retained the backing of Keir Starmer. And whereas defeated for the deputy management, Phillipson can in the present day mirror that on a number of different fronts she has gained.
Labour’s Europe debate heats up
In Tuesday’s Morning Name I reported on growing assist inside authorities for a brand new customs union with the EU. So it’s notable that David Lammy has now added his voice to the controversy. “You’ll be able to see nations like Turkey with a customs union seemingly benefitting and seeing development of their financial system. That’s self-evident,” the Deputy Prime Minister informed The Information Brokers podcast. Whereas he emphasised “that isn’t at the moment our coverage, that isn’t the place we’re”, Lammy’s feedback are the warmest from any cupboard minister on the topic (Darren Jones has riposted that coverage will probably be introduced in parliament, not “on podcasts”).
An growing quantity in Labour now imagine it’s inevitable that the occasion will change its Europe place earlier than the subsequent common election – and that if Keir Starmer, that ardent European, doesn’t transfer first, then whoever follows him will.
This piece first appeared within the Morning Name e-newsletter; obtain it each morning by subscribing on Substack right here
[Further reading: We can break the cycle of poverty]