In a month full of parliamentary firsts, we now have another: the formation of the first new Labour caucus. More than 60 MPs have co-signed a letter, as part of the ‘Labour Growth Group,’ enthusiastically declaring their support for planning reform. ‘With such a strong mandate from the country,’ they write ‘it’s imperative that the new government grasps the nettle and goes for growth.’
It urges the government to start building the 1.5 million new homes which Labour pledged in its manifesto, including ‘prioritising grey belt development.’ Very often, MPs claim to back new homes yet object to anything in their own patch. But these co-signatories say that they are willing to have the ‘difficult conversations in our own communities about how, not whether we deliver our targets.’
The LGG is mostly comprised of MPs who were elected three weeks ago. It presently does not have any formal leaders; efforts to pen a joint statement started just ten days ago. As such, the ‘group’ in the LGG’s title refers as much to the WhatsApp group by which their letter was co-ordinated rather than denote anything grander. However, its reception has been a positive one and points to an appetite on the Labour benches to send a statement of intent.
The original letter boasted 54 names: now more than 60 are in support, with one MP expecting the numbers to eventually near 100. Given that ministers cannot sign such letters, this would be an impressive feat in a party of 400 MPs. Signatories include rising stars like Mike Tapp, Chris Curtis, Josh Simons and Zubir Ahmed, alongside older MPs like Liam Byrne and Tonia Antoniazzi. But Torsten Bell – recently appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Starmer loyalist Pat McFadden – has added his name too.
This is therefore clearly a pro-Starmer project. Indeed, the opening three sentences of the LGG’s opening letter praises the Prime Minister for his ‘historic success’ and for putting ‘politics back in the service of working people.’ In its stated mission, it could perform a similar role to what the Free Enterprise Group did under George Osborne during the Coalition: serving as necessary outriders to deliver messages that can sometimes be unpopular in Westminster and beyond. For the likes of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, it was about tax and spending cuts; for the LGG it is the need to build.
An implicit message is sent via the creation of this group too: that Labour’s MPs are serious about the party’s growth mission. ‘Shit needs to get built’, says one member, bluntly, who says it shows how ‘We’re not going to do the Corbynite thing’ of being anti-business in government. It’s about habit-formation in parliament too, encouraging MPs to welcome building projects rather than campaign to shut them down. ‘We are not going to be councillors on a local planning meeting. We are MPs in our national parliament’ says one fresh-faced member of the class of ’24.
The timing of the group’s launch is fortuitous, coming ahead of Rachel Reeves’ fiscal audit tonight and Angela Rayner’s planning statement tomorrow. But while it would be easy to see the Labour Growth Group as simply a Starmtrooper support group, there is a sting in the tail. Their letter makes clear that building thousands of new homes isn’t enough: new areas require proper ‘infrastructure and public services’ too. Signing off new homes in Whitehall is one thing: giving growth areas the necessary schools, hospitals and transport projects to support them is quite another.
Comments