Blue Labour

Blue Labour is a British campaign group and political faction that seeks to promote blue-collar and culturally conservative values within the British Labour Party — particularly on immigration, crime, community spirit, and the European Union — while remaining committed to labour rights and left-wing economic policies. It seeks to represent a traditional working-class approach to Labour politics. Launched in 2009 as a counter to New Labour, the Blue Labour movement first rose to prominence after Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election, in which for the first time the party received fewer working-class votes than it did middle-class votes. The movement has influenced a handful of Labour MPs and frontbenchers; founder Maurice Glasman served as a close ally to Ed Miliband during his early years as Leader of the Opposition, before himself becoming a life peer in the House of Lords. The movement has also seen a resurgence of interest after the loss of red wall seats in the 2019 general election. Blue Labour argues that the party lost touch with its base by embracing anti-patriotism in the face of Brexit and by undermining solidarity in local communities through bureaucratic collectivism, social agendas, and neoliberal economics. It argues that whilst postwar Old Labour had become too uncritical of state power, New Labour far worsened this with an uncritical view of global markets as well. The group further advocates a switch to local and democratic community management and provision of services, rather than relying on a top-down welfare state which it sees as excessively bureaucratic. Economically it is described as a "movement keen on guild socialism and continental corporatism". The Blue Labour position has been articulated in books such as Tangled Up in Blue (2011) of Rowenna Davis, Blue Labour: Forging a New Politics (2015) of Ian Geary and Adrian Pabst and Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good (2022) of Glasman himself. Additional elucidations on Blue Labour's ideas can be found in The Purple Book (2011) of Robert Philpot and Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class (2020) of Paul Embery.