Ahead of this year's Labour Party conference, which starts in Liverpool on Sunday, the Mile End Institute is publishing its new pamphlet on the urgent questions facing Labour and the wider centre-left.
After a particularly difficult decade, the centre-left is once again seen as a plausible governing force across much of Europe and the Americas. Britain is no exception. Following nearly two years of consecutive polling leads over the Conservatives, with the current average margin ranging between 15 and 20 points, Keir Starmer's Labour Party is now taken deeply seriously across the spectrum as the likely governing party after 2024.
There has thus never been a better moment for sober, informed, and clear-eyed assessment of the challenges facing the British centre-left, and the resources and opportunities it has at its disposal. To this end, the Mile End Institute organised a one-day conference on Thursday 15 June this year. Bringing together a host of influential politicians, policymakers, think-tank researchers and academics, this conference assessed the current state of thinking on the UK centre-left and identified the key questions that it has yet to fully confront.
A product of that conference, our new pamphlet features analysis and prescription from leading speakers from politics, policymaking, and academia. Introduced by Colm Murphy and Farah Hussain, the pamphlet features pieces by Alan Finlayson, Eunice Goes, Ryan Jude, Clare McNeil, and a conclusion by our Director, Patrick Diamond, on 'A Governing Agenda for Hard Times'. Together they provide Starmer and his team with not only questions that they must address ahead of next year's likely election, but also some potential answers.