Keir Starmer is being urged to adopt ‘contribution’ as his new buzz word amid desperate efforts to stabilise Labour.
An influential think-tank has been pushing the PM to adopt the term as a way of countering criticism about the government’s lack of direction.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is said to be considering it to underpin her looming Budget – which many fear will include tens of billions of pounds more in tax rises.
But the ideas for ‘contribution’ could fuel public anger over immigration, with the paper suggesting asylum seekers should be allowed to work in the UK while their claims are considered.
Sir Keir is often berated as a shapeshifter, having tacked to the Left to win the battle to succeed Jeremy Corbyn and then abandoned a swathe of promises.
The premier has laid out a bewildering array of ‘milestones’ and ‘missions’ for his administration, but even close allies are not clear about his guiding philosophy.
When he was accused of moving to the Right during an internal party row in 2020 Sir Keir notoriously insisted: ‘There is no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be.’
A paper from think-tank Labour Together – previously run by Sir Keir’s powerful chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney – has made the latest attempt to define the government’s purpose.
Amid dire polls suggesting the PM faces being trounced by Reform at the next election, the report says the party should ‘root itself in an ethic and expectation of contribution: the actions we take that make other people better off’.
‘This can be work, care, volunteering, paying taxes or helping out in your community. These acts are the basis of reciprocity and solidarity,’ the paper, written by Chief Policy Adviser Morgan Wild, said.
‘Actions we take for others, in the anticipation that they will take them for us.’
The report warned Labour must ‘meet the public where they are’ and argued that ‘contribution is the main thing they mean by fairness’.
‘They believe that to get something out of the country, you have to put something in. They do not believe the state is doing its part,’ it added.
‘Labour needs to deliver to change their minds. But a politics of contribution would mean much more than delivery. The state would shift focus, towards enabling, rewarding and expecting people to contribute.’
The report urged Sir Keir to ‘stop the pretence that the public will support a welfare system they often see little benefit from themselves’.
It suggested turning Universal Credit into a ‘minimum income guarantee’ while having a social insurance ‘top-up’.
Other ideas include short-term unemployment insurance, better family and care entitlements, and higher contributory pensions.
Mooting a theoretical example of ‘Alice’, a small business owner who is advised to pay herself in dividends and keep money in the business to minimise her tax bill, the report said the tax code should be simplified. Noting that such entrepreneurs fuel the economy, the paper added: ‘Perhaps the most important thing to do is tax them as little as possible.’
The Labour Together proposals also talk about a fictional asylum seeker called Isak, an Eritrean with posttraumatic stress disorder.
The report said rather than leaving him in an asylum hotel he should be granted refugee status for six months, and allowed to work.
That would be highly controversial as critics would view it as encouraging more people to cross the Channel in search of a better life.
According to The Times, senior ministers are keen on the ‘contribution’ mantra – although others prefer ‘opportunity’ as a buzz word.
In a foreword to the report, former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn and Matthew Upton, Labour Together’s executive director, said the ‘connection between what people put in and what they get out has all but disappeared’.
They said a ‘paradigm shift’ was needed to avoid Labour becoming irrelevant.
