The Future of The Labour Party

Tom Watson, the Labour Party’s deputy leader, has said Jeremy Corbyn is now ‘completely secure’ as the head of the party for years to come, and could win a majority by reaching out to Labour’s traditional working class voters. The show of support from Watson, who has previously called Corbyn’s leadership ‘untenable’, is a demonstration of the party’s increased confidence following the election last month, in which Labour saw huge gains.

Corbyn has gained great amounts of support since the snap election was first called, both from the public and from within his own party. Corbyn recently said at an anti-austerity rally held in Parliament Square that he was determined to force another election.

However a report by the Policy Network thinktank has shown that a ‘one more push’ approach will not be enough to secure a strong majority. The report found that Labour’s ‘core vote’ is increasingly the highest and lowest earners in Britain, and that more needs to be done to reassure working-class voters of Labour’s economic competency.

The findings of the report overwhelmingly show that a change in tactics will be necessary if the party is to continue to see growing support and secure the 64 more seats the part needs for a majority. Watson said has said that the party needs to run a ‘slightly different campaign,’ and that they “have got to give reassurance to those traditional, working-class communities.”

“If we can bring in these young voters, enthuse them to stay with us and then give greater reassurance to our traditional working-class voters, some of whom left us on issues like policing and security, then I think we’ve got an election-winning alliance and I think it is an unbeatable one.”