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Leadership candidates stress importance of ideology to Labour

The five candidates for the Labour leadership have written Fabian Essays on how important it is that the party has a distinctive ideology, as well as answering a selection of questions submitted by Fabian members and contributors online.

In the essays, Diane Abbott argues that, without ideology, the Labour front bench would be in danger of becoming "freelance management consultants", Ed Balls says that 2010 voters thought Labour no longer "championed a fair society", Andy Burnham admits that "we seemed dazzled by power, glamour and big business", David Miliband argues that despite Osborne's "masochism", Labour mustn't deny "economic reality", and, according to Ed Miliband, "old-fashioned New Labour is now an obstacle to winning next election".

You can read the full collection of essays online here.

"Old fashioned New Labour is now an obstacle" to victory says Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband essay New Labour's focus on affluent voters will no longer win the Party elections, argues Ed Miliband in the last of our Labour Leadership essays. "New Labour’s proposition was simple – we need to persuade Tory voters to come to us. The task is very different now."

He goes on to argue, "Five million votes were lost by Labour between 1997 and 2010, but four out of the five million didn’t go to the Conservatives. One third went to the Liberal Democrats, and most of the rest simply stopped voting. It wasn’t, in the main, the most affluent, professional voters that deserted Labour either... You really don’t need to be a Bennite to believe that this represents a crisis of working-class representation for Labour – and our electability."

Read Ed Miliband's Fabian Essay here and read report in today's Guardian here.

"We seemed dazzled by power, glamour and big business", says Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham today criticises the 'upper echelons' of new Labour, saying "I do have a problem with people being filthy rich", and contrasts this with his own "aspirational socialism" in the third of our Labour Leadership candidates essays.

"We seemed dazzled by power, glamour and big business," writes Burnham. "There is a fine line between celebrating success and courting elites and to many people we crossed it. Unlike some others in the upper echelons of the Party, I do have a problem with people being filthy rich. This isn’t based on some working class knee-jerk reaction. It comes back to that sense of fairness, and the contrast between my constituency and George Osborne’s."

You can read Andy Burnham's essay here.

Labour front bench 'freelance management consultants' says Abbott

abbottfrontpagelink In the first of the Fabian Society's Labour Leadership essays, Diane Abbott writes that ideology is crucial if Labour shadow ministers are to take part in rebuilding the party.

"Without ideology, shadow ministers run the risk of being just a bunch of freelance management consultants. It is unsurprising that in the closing months of the New Labour administration some former government ministers jumped ship the better to amass directorships. In the absence of ideology, management is all the same, whether you are doing it in government or in the private sector. If you do not believe in anything, there is no question of sticking with your party to rebuild it in opposition."

You can read Diane Abbott's Fabian essay here.

Despite Osborne's masochism, don't deny economic reality, says David Miliband

davidfrontpagelink Labour's lack of a shared ideology is a problem for the Party when opposing coalition cuts, argues David Miliband in our fourth Labour Leadership essay today.

"An absence of a shared creed, of an ideology that can unite our movement, is a problem for Labour. In the good times it matters less... but when historic choices need to be made it is a weakness... Voters – many of them our voters – spent the election wondering whose side we were really on."

He argues that Labour needs its "own story of political economy that embraces neither the masochism of George Osborne nor the denial of economic reality."

Read David Miliband's Fabian Essay here.

2010 voters thought Labour "no longer championed a fair society", says Balls

ballsfrontpagelink In the second of the Fabian Society's Labour Leadership essays, Ed Balls argues that during the recent election campaign the party was lacking in courage and that voters sensed it.

"By 2010 the clear message from the electorate was that, while people still supported our values, they thought we were unclear about them, that we were sometimes out of touch and that we no longer championed a fair society... It was also a failure of communication and courage. In the desire to be credible - in the eyes of some in the press - the Government lost its radical edge."

You can read Ed Balls's essay here.

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