By Chris Saltmarsh

For the first time in my life, I am a Labour member while the Party is in government. It inherits a crisis-ridden country, degraded by fourteen years of Tory government and over four decades of neoliberal consensus. It is therefore unsurprising that Keir Starmer’s honeymoon period was ended so promptly by the far-right riots at the beginning of August. This was the first sign that Labour has a monumental job on its hands to begin resolving our society’s deep-rooted challenges.

The honeymoon period for Labour activists is now over too, but for us due to the return of internal elections. Ballots for the National Policy Forum (NPF) and National Executive Committee (NEC) represent an early opportunity for ordinary members to assert continued influence on the Party as it adjusts to governmental power. Maintaining strong member representation is all the more important considering the relatively meagre platform Labour was elected on. Members now have a crucial role to play in holding the government’s feet to the fire.

The socialist critique of Labour’s 2024 manifesto is well-rehearsed. Most new public spending or investment is reliant on growth that may or may not substantially return and there is a distinct lack of public ownership to counter the failure of privatisation. This moderation has proven electorally successful in the short-run but Labour risks setting itself up to fail without a serious plan to transform the country. Labour has a historic opportunity to reverse the trends of socio-economic decline plaguing the UK. Wasting this chance could permanently damage the Party’s electoral prospects. More immediately, failing to materially improve peoples’ lives and address the major systemic crises we face risks opening the door for the Tories to return to power at the next general election.

Climate change is one such crisis but has worryingly dropped down the priorities list for both social movements and in public discourse. If 2019 was The Climate Election, 2024 was notable for the absence of environmental issues. The reasons are likely twofold. Firstly, the climate movement itself is in a much weaker place following the demobilising effects of COVID-19 lockdowns. Secondly, and resultantly, the parties themselves had much less to say on the issue. Since Starmer’s election as Labour leader, the Party dropped the popular Green New Deal programme before dropping their own pledge of £28bn of green investment a year. The surviving pledge to create Great British Energy (GBE) is a saving grace, but concerns remain that it will be insufficiently resourced and fail to scale to really compete in the energy market.

Extreme weather will continue to intensify, regardless of how much political attention climate change receives. As such, it must surely be a priority for Labour to develop this policy area while in government rather than waiting for the next election or for disaster to strike. We cannot just sit back and hope this happens, though. However demotivating Labour’s climate policies have been, now is not the time to give up on pushing them further. The climate movement has a massive role to play in building popular support for rapid and fair decarbonisation. It must urgently reorient from minoritarian disruptions to majoritarian mass mobilisation.

It is also incumbent on us as socialists to buttress such mobilisation by continuing to work within Labour’s policy structures to provide representation for the movement’s key ideas. That is why I’m standing in Yorkshire and the Humber to represent members on Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF). As a co-founder of Labour for a Green New Deal, I have worked with members, trade unions and ministers to develop socialist climate policies that have been among the most popular offered by Labour in recent years. I am committed to bringing that political impulse and organising experience to the NPF to represent members’ desire for the government to go as far as possible in tackling both the climate crisis and other major issues facing the country.

Socialist candidates are standing for election to the NPF in all regions, supported by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA). I know they share my commitment to representing members by relentlessly making the argument for socialist policies within the Party. Ballots will be open from Tuesday 27th August and close on Tuesday 17th September. I encourage you to support them wherever you live. If you vote in Yorkshire and the Humber, please support me (Chris Saltmarsh), Jack Ballingham, Sandra Wyman, and Corinne Furness.

Image: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1445485 CC0 1.0 Public Domain Licence: CERTIFICATION 1.0 US Public Domain PDM 1.0 Public Domain