As I write, there is chaos across the river in Westminster. While yesterday may have been all smiles for the King’s Speech (in which many of you may have noted there was no mention of the government’s ridiculous proposal to ban trail hunting), the knives were being sharpened, and today we will see how the latest episode of political psychodrama will unfold, with potential leadership challenges from Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner being reported.
Nor will the elections for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Senedd and English councils have escaped your notice, which have kicked off the current chaos at the top of the Labour Party. No one can be certain who will be Prime Minister next week, let alone at the next election. Less than two years ago Labour won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in history, yet now it is facing electoral obliteration. How did it come to this?
Rural issues have played their part. First with the disastrous Family Farm Tax which would have raised a pittance but cost an incalculable amount of political capital. Secondly, with the costs piled onto rural businesses through National Insurance, business rates and energy costs. Then with the obsessive pursuit of trail hunting. When Ministers prioritised hunting they all but admitted that the government did not have a serious agenda for rural communities.
Of course, there have been many other missteps, but the rapid fracturing of the government’s relationship with the countryside is symptomatic of its wider travails. Ill-thought-out policy implemented with haste, only to be met with widespread opposition which generated a partial U-turn, but only after the political damage had been done. Then a retreat to activist-inspired culture war politics in the absence of any serious agenda.
Whatever conclusions the Labour Party comes to in the coming weeks and months and whoever is in Number 10 – whether Keir Starmer or one of those jockeying to replace him – their approach to the countryside must change fundamentally if they are to have any chance of rebuilding a semblance of trust. Whatever its problems, Labour still has well over 100 MPs in rural constituencies who will already be looking towards the next general election with trepidation. Yet neither Labour, nor any other party, can achieve a majority without significant support in the countryside.
Trust can be regained, polls can turn, but not if you keep making the same mistake. Whoever is in charge of the Labour Party when the music stops needs to deliver the change that was promised in 2024. A change from the arrogant assumption that government knows what is best for the countryside. A change from the absence of any real representation for – or understanding of – rural communities across government and Whitehall. A change from the ludicrous agenda that puts culture war politics and attacks on trail hunting, game shooting, gun ownership and any other bandwagon activists jump on ahead of practical policies to support rural communities. None of us will hold our breath, but the Alliance will be right there in the mix making sure your voice is heard.