\n<\/p>\n
David Lammy has urged Labour MPs to see the party\u2019s defeat in the Caerphilly byelection as a moment of reflection, arguing progressive governments around the world have recovered from worse to \u201cwin big\u201d.<\/p>\n
The deputy prime minister pointed to Canada\u2019s Liberals, Norway\u2019s Labour party and Australia\u2019s Labor party as examples of centre-left groups that \u201croared back\u201d from midterm slumps to secure significant victories.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour party on Monday night, Lammy said the lesson from Caerphilly was that \u201cpeople can mobilise to stop Reform, but we are not always the beneficiary\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said progressives \u201chave to get better at picking the fights that demonstrate our values\u201d if they want to convince voters to feel the purpose behind Labour\u2019s project in power.<\/p>\n
Lammy\u2019s remarks come as Labour MPs and peers privately concede the party is still trying to define what its reform agenda actually means in practice, and how they can turn it into something voters can actually feel. One Labour insider said the danger was \u201cending up with reform as a slogan rather than something people can actually touch\u201d.<\/p>\n
His comments followed a day of unusually frank conversations among Labour MPs, many of whom privately praised Wes Streeting\u2019s response to the byelection loss in Wales, after he told broadcasters Labour had not told a \u201ccompelling enough story\u201d about its achievements. He compared Labour\u2019s third place in Caerphilly to the 2021 Hartlepool byelection, which led Keir Starmer to contemplate resigning as party leader.<\/p>\n
He told the Sunday Times that Starmer \u201cnot only took that result on the chin, he took it to heart\u201d and used it to accelerate his reform of the party in opposition.<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s vote share in Caerphilly fell to 11%, with Plaid Cymru surging to victory and Reform UK taking second place, splitting between an anti-establishment local sentiment and populist anger.<\/p>\n
Several MPs described the health secretary\u2019s tone as \u201cblunt but refreshing\u201d, highlighting an appetite for plainer, more evocative language that cuts through the party\u2019s cautious talk of change.<\/p>\n
Others still argue that Starmer\u2019s sharp conference pivot, especially his moral attack on Reform UK\u2019s \u201cpolitics of division\u201d and \u201cracist policies\u201d, could still prove decisive. They believe it came from a progressive place and could reset the conversation before May\u2019s local elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the right fight,\u201d one MP said. \u201cThe question is whether he\u2019s left himself enough time to win it. We need to double down, not shy away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Lammy has urged Labour MPs to see the party\u2019s defeat in the Caerphilly byelection as a moment of reflection, arguing progressive governments around the world have recovered from worse to \u201cwin big\u201d. The deputy prime minister pointed to Canada\u2019s Liberals, Norway\u2019s Labour party and Australia\u2019s Labor party as examples of centre-left groups that \u201croared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[17762,8647,134,8550,1896,2651,18128,2184,272],"class_list":{"0":"post-31006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-caerphilly","9":"tag-defeat","10":"tag-labour","11":"tag-lammy","12":"tag-learn","13":"tag-party","14":"tag-reset","15":"tag-seeks","16":"tag-tells"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}