Soft left

In the context of the Labour Party, the term "soft left" was coined in 1981, when Neil Kinnock refused to support Tony Benn for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party {{See below|content=History}}. It described a faction of the party which disagreed with the conservative tendencies of the Labour right and the radical tendencies of the "Bennite" left, also known as the hard left.{{Cite news |last=Fielding |first=Steven |date=22 January 2020 |title=Keir Starmer is Labour's 'continuity Miliband' contender |work=The Spectator |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-is-labour-s-continuity-miliband-contender/ |access-date=20 May 2023}} In parliament, it was represented by the Tribune Group of MPs and consequently came to be known as the Tribunite left as well.{{Cite book |last=Hosken |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=weQOAQAAMAAJ |title=Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone |publisher=Arcadia |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-905147-72-4 |page=9 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Paterson |first1=William E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuWHAAAAMAAJ |title=The Future of Social Democracy: Problems and Prospects of Social Democratic Parties in Western Europe |last2=Thomas |first2=Alastair H. |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-19-876168-6 |page=84 |language=en}} The soft left also aligned itself with the Labour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC).{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Ross |date=2001 |title=The Labour Party and the Labour Left: Party Transformation and the Decline of Factionalism 1979–97 |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6e09469d-854f-420c-8167-c755b1b919f1/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=602322115.pdf |access-date=31 May 2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=40–41}}

The soft left was initially considered another faction in the Labour left along with the Bennite left, though unlike the Bennite left, it was willing to compromise on some issues to keep the party united and electable.{{Cite web |date=May 1983 |title=The British Labor Party: Caught Between Ideology and Reality |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84S00555R000200060004-2.pdf |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |page=11 |language=en-US}} Neil Kinnock, a leader of the soft left, became leader of the Labour Party in 1983.{{Cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Ben |last2=Hickson |first2=Kevin |date=16 June 2022 |title=Keir Starmer: what Labour leader could learn from Neil Kinnock to capitalise on Boris Johnson's woes |work=The Conversation |url=https://theconversation.com/keir-starmer-what-labour-leader-could-learn-from-neil-kinnock-to-capitalise-on-boris-johnsons-woes-184981 |access-date=31 May 2023}} When he moved rightwards in this role, the soft left followed him.{{Cite book |last1=Childs |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA213 |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture |last2=Storry |first2=Michael |date=13 May 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-75555-4 |page=213 |access-date=31 May 2023}} As alliances were made between the soft left and the party leadership, the ideological distinctiveness of the LCC and the Tribune Group declined. The soft left formed an alliance with the Labour right to oppose the Bennite left and support Kinnock's leadership.{{Cite book |last1=Hassan |first1=Gerry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C9eVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT89 |title=The People's Flag and the Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party |last2=Shaw |first2=Eric |date=7 May 2019 |publisher=Biteback Publishing |isbn=978-1-78590-387-8 |page=89 |access-date=31 May 2023}}{{Cite book |last=Wilsford |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8iJNlWcdIUC&pg=PA241 |title=Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary |date=1995 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-28623-0 |page=241 |language=en |access-date=31 May 2023}} During his leadership, the soft left also formed a new moderniser faction with members of the Labour right against the party's traditionalist faction.{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Jon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cR6yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Heroes Or Villains?: The Blair Government Reconsidered |last2=Rentoul |first2=John |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-960885-0 |page=18 |language=en |author-link2=John Rentoul |access-date=31 May 2023}} The soft left was no longer an identifiable faction on the Labour left by the time of the 1992 general election, with the Tribune Group disbanding by the time Tony Blair became Labour leader in 1994. The process whereby the soft left drifted away from the Labour left and pitched itself against the Bennite left is known as the "realignment of the left".{{Cite news |date=May 1985 |title=Left or rightward shift? |page=47 |work=New Socialist |publisher=Labour Party |issue=23–33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivYDAQAAIAAJ |access-date=25 July 2023}}

In modern politics, the soft left refers to a faction in the Labour Party which opposed the New Labour project but has avoided the politics of the modern Labour left, also known as the hard left.{{Cite news |last=Self |first=Josh |date=4 January 2023 |title=A quiet psychodrama: The story of how Keir Starmer transformed Labour in 1000 days |work=Politics.co.uk |url=https://www.politics.co.uk/5-minute-read/2023/01/04/a-quiet-psychodrama-the-story-of-how-keir-starmer-transformed-labour-in-1000-days/ |access-date=31 May 2023}} Ideologically, it is described as centre-left{{Cite news |last1=Payne |first1=Sebastian |last2=Pickard |first2=Jim |last3=Kao |first3=Joanna S |last4=Nevitt |first4=Caroline |date=3 September 2019 |title=Jeremy Corbyn's inner circles |work=Financial Times |url=https://ig.ft.com/jeremy-corbyn-labour-inner-circles/ |access-date=31 May 2023}} and is typically thought to occupy the space in the party between the Labour left and the Labour right.{{Cite web |last=Lapsley |first=Steve |date=9 May 2020 |title=In defence of 'soft left' |url=https://openlabour.org/in-defence-of-soft-left/ |access-date=31 May 2023 |website=Open Labour}}{{Cite news |last=Shaw |first=Eric |date=April 2020 |title=British Labour's Safe Pair of Hands |work=Inroads – The Canadian Journal of Opinion |issue=47 |url=https://inroadsjournal.ca/british-labours-safe-pair-of-hands/ |access-date=31 May 2023}} While the Labour left is more supportive of socialism, the soft left is more supportive of social democracy.{{Cite book |last1=Manwaring |first1=Rob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UlI8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |title=Why the Left Loses: The Decline of the Centre-Left in Comparative Perspective |last2=Kennedy |first2=Paul |date=2018 |publisher=Policy Press |isbn=978-1-4473-3266-4 |page=29 |access-date=31 May 2023}} It believes in compromising more traditional socialist policies to make Labour more electable.{{Cite web |last=Craddock |first=Isabella |date=23 July 2020 |title=The Commons: The Rise of Keir Starmer |url=https://www.moderntreatise.com/current-affairs/2020/7/17/the-commons-the-rise-of-keir-starmer |access-date=31 May 2023 |website=Modern Treatise}} It is one of the four main factions in the modern Labour Party.{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=Luke John |date=March 2020 |title=The role of youth and student wings in shaping Social Democratic Parliamentarians in Germany and Great Britain. |url=https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/42466/1/DAVIES_LUKE_JOHN_050461228_2020.pdf |access-date=31 May 2023 |publisher=Aston University |pages=116, 173}}

The term "soft left" has been said to carry negative connotations which can suggest a less enthusiastic approach to socialism. It has been argued that the term "inside left" should be used instead.{{Cite news |last=Crines |first=Andrew Scott |date=12 July 2011 |title=Michael Foot and the Labour Leadership |page=161 |work=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781443832397 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MhQrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 |access-date=31 May 2023}} The left-leaning magazines New Statesman and Tribune have used the term as well.{{Cite news |last=Reeves |first=Richard |date=14 July 2003 |title=The public intellectual |volume=132 |page=23 |work=New Statesman |issue=4645–4648 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boMxAQAAIAAJ |access-date=31 May 2023}}{{Cite news |date=18 May 2007 |title=Energy: principled |volume=71 |page=17 |work=Tribune |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNMnAQAAIAAJ |access-date=31 May 2023}} However, unlike the term "hard left", which can be considered pejorative,{{Cite news |last=Stone |first=Jon |date=5 January 2016 |title=Labour's left wing 'can't tolerate dissent', Labour MP Chris Leslie claims |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-s-left-wing-can-t-tolerate-dissent-labour-mp-chris-leslie-claims-a6797481.html |access-date=31 May 2023}} "soft left" members have used the term as a self-descriptor to distance themselves from the "hard left".{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Jeremy |date=March 2016 |title=Corbynism and Its Futures |url=https://nearfuturesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Gilbert_05-1.pdf |journal=Near Futures Online: Europe at a Crossroads |volume=1 |access-date=31 May 2023}} Soft left MP Lisa Nandy advocates a "better name" for the faction; she has said the term "sounds a bit like you've sort of collapsed into a jellyfish".{{Cite news |last1=Sodha |first1=Sonia |last2=Helm |first2=Toby |date=29 February 2020 |title=Lisa Nandy: 'If Labour got things broadly right, how did we lose so badly?' |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/29/lisa-nandy-if-labour-got-things-right-how-did-we-lose-so-badly-interview |access-date=31 May 2023}} Open Labour, the main organisation representing the soft left, has preferred to use the term "open left".{{Cite web |last=Rodgers |first=Sienna |date=26 September 2022 |title=Labour Party Jargon Buster: Use our glossary of terms at Conference '22 |url=https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/labour-party-jargon-buster |access-date=22 January 2023 |website=PoliticsHome}}

The distinction between hard and soft left became evident during the leadership of Michael Foot (1980–1983), who, along with Tony Benn, was one of the two figureheads of the party left. Supporters of Foot (an anti-communist whose background was in the Tribune group) and Benn (originally on the party's right but by the end of the 1970s to Foot's left and a more uncompromising supporter of unilateral nuclear disarmament) became increasingly polarised.{{cite book | last=Seyd | first=Patrick | title=The Rise and Fall of the Labour Left | chapter=Left Disintegration and Decline | publisher=Macmillan Education UK | publication-place=London | year=1987 | doi=10.1007/978-1-349-18923-6_7 | pages=159–171| isbn=978-0-333-44748-2 }}{{cite web | title=Kinnock v Benn: Labour's Final Battle of the 1980s – TIDES OF HISTORY | website=TIDES OF HISTORY – Commentary on Labour History, British Politics and Working Class Culture | date=2020-03-31 | url=https://tidesofhistory.com/2020/03/31/kinnock-v-benn-labours-final-battle-of-the-1980s/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814202405/https://tidesofhistory.com/2020/03/31/kinnock-v-benn-labours-final-battle-of-the-1980s/ | url-status=usurped | archive-date=August 14, 2020 | access-date=2021-10-05}}

In the election for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 1981, left-wingers such as Neil Kinnock abstained from voting for Tony Benn, signaling the emergence of an independent soft left grouping in the party.{{cite web | last=Hutchinson | first=Nicky | title=The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, or: How the 1980s Soft Left Is Making a Comeback | website=New Socialist | date=2021-06-13 | url=http://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/adventures-tom-sawyer-or-how-1980s-soft-left-making-comeback/ | access-date=2021-10-05}}{{cite web | last=Kellner| first=Peter | title=I'm holding out for my Labour Party hero—Neil Kinnock | website=Prospect Magazine | date=2015-07-23 | url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/im-holding-out-for-my-labour-party-hero-neil-kinnock | access-date=2021-10-05}} The term came to be used in contrast to hard left, who were more explicitly socialist in rhetoric, remaining associated with Benn.{{cite journal | last1=Thompson | first1=Paul | last2=Pitts | first2=Frederick Harry | last3=Ingold | first3=Jo | title=A Strategic Left? Starmerism, Pluralism and the Soft Left | journal=The Political Quarterly | publisher=Wiley | volume=92 | issue=1 | date=2020-11-30 | issn=0032-3179 | doi=10.1111/1467-923x.12940 | pages=32–39| s2cid=229426961 | doi-access=free | hdl=10536/DRO/DU:30146456 | hdl-access=free }} In common with the party right, the soft left was suspicious of the hard left's alliance with Trotskyism (particularly its links with Militant), supported a parliamentary rather than extra-parliamentary road to socialism, retreated from a commitment to widening public ownership of the economy, and tended towards Atlanticist or Europeanist rather than anti-imperialist foreign policy.{{cite web | last=Lloyd | first=John | title=From the NS Archive: Tony Benn and a Labour leadership challenge [1988]| website=New Statesman | date=2021-07-07 | url=https://www.newstatesman.com/archive/2021/07/ns-archive-tony-benn-and-labour-leadership-challenge | access-date=2021-10-05}}{{cite web | title="I'll tell you and you'll listen": the Neil Kinnock speech that lives on – Anthony Broxton | website=The Critic Magazine | date=October 2020 | url=https://thecritic.co.uk/the-neil-kinnock-speech-that-lives-on/ | access-date=2021-10-05}}

The parliamentary group which came to be associated with the soft left was the Tribune group. The Tribune group was formed around the newspaper of the same name and had represented the party left as a whole until Benn's allies formed the Socialist Campaign Group. The Labour Co-ordinating Committee grew to become the soft left's main factional organisation in the 1980s, despite having begun its life as a Bennite or "hard left" body. The soft left, influenced by the intellectual interventions of Mike Rustin, Geoff Hodgson and Peter Hain, increasingly rejected the socialism from above of Stalinism and social democracy. It stressed pluralism, including multifarious forms of social ownership and widening Labour's electoral coalition. Figures identified with the soft left in the 1980s included MPs David Blunkett, Robin Cook, Bryan Gould and Clare Short.

While Kinnock initially emerged from the soft left, portraying himself as a "media-friendly Michael Foot", he tacked to the right of the Tribune group, although they continued to vote with him in the National Executive Committee.{{cite book | last=Heffernan | first=Richard | title=New labour and Thatcherism : political change in Britain | publisher=St. Martin's Press | publication-place=New York, N.Y. | year=2000 | isbn=0-333-73897-7 | pages=73–77}} Soft left candidates increasingly gained positions in the party leadership after 1983, but Kinnock and deputy leader Roy Hattersley kept the party to their right. Kinnock's defeat in the 1992 general election signalled an end to the soft left's rise, as they were increasingly marginalised by the modernisation project associated with Tony Blair. The 1980s soft left began to diverge over time; for example, some figures (such as Blunkett) became loyalists to Blair by the end of the 1990s. However, activist figures such as the National Executive Committee member Ann Black and a range of MPs continued to work as part of the 'broad left'.

In 2015, Neal Lawson, the chair of the think tank Compass, identified the organisation as a successor to the soft left. Compass disaffiliated from Labour in 2011 in order to open up their membership to people belonging to other political parties.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/soft-left-labour-splinter-party|title=Without the soft left, Labour is doomed to splinter|last=Lawson|first=Neal|author-link=Neal Lawson|date=24 July 2015|website=The Guardian|accessdate=12 September 2015}} The activist group Open Labour was launched in 2015 with the aim of developing a new forum for the soft left political tradition within the party, which it hopes to recast as the "Open Left".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/09/labour-activists-launch-new-group-on-partys-left|title=Labour activists launch new group on party's left|last=Wintour|first=Patrick|author-link=Patrick Wintour|date=9 December 2015|website=The Guardian|accessdate=12 October 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://openlabour.org/comment/more-than-just-an-interim|title=More than just an interim|last=Azim|first=Jade|date=9 December 2015}} In the 2017 general election, several Open Labour activists were elected to Parliament including Open Labour Treasurer Alex Sobel, Emma Hardy, and Rosie Duffield.

In the aftermath of the party leadership (2015–20) of Jeremy Corbyn, who has been identified as a hard left MP, the term was generally used to mean "the space between Corbynite remnants on the left, and Progress and Labour First on the right". Keir Starmer, the current leader of the Labour Party, and Angela Rayner, the current deputy leader, have both been described as soft left.{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Zoe |title=Keir Starmer's soft-left approach is the unifying force that Labour needs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/21/keir-starmer-soft-left-approach-unifying-labour |accessdate=2 August 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=21 January 2020}}

People belonging to the soft left may be called soft leftists{{Cite book |last=Shaw |first=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TOaIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |title=The Labour Party Since 1979: Crisis and Transformation |date=22 January 2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-93545-1 |page=163 |language=en}} or Tribunites.{{Cite book |last1=Derbyshire |first1=J. Denis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWFnAAAAMAAJ |title=Politics in Britain: From Callaghan to Thatcher |last2=Derbyshire |first2=Ian |publisher=Chambers |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-550-20742-5 |volume=2 |page=187 |language=en}} The following Labour politicians are often considered to have been on the soft left of the party for at least some of their careers, but may not identify themselves as such:

• Andy Burnham{{cite web |url=https://www.ft.com/content/a623fd1e-393b-11e5-8613-07d16aad2152 |title=The soft left is the real threat to Labour |last=Ganesh |first=Janan |author-link=Janan Ganesh |date=3 August 2015|website=FT.com|access-date=2 June 2020}}{{cite web |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/09/andy-burnham-quits-shadow-cabinet-lets-end-divisive-talk-deselections |title=Andy Burnham quits shadow cabinet: "Let's end divisive talk of deselections" |last=Rampen |first=Julia |date=28 September 2016 |website=New Statesman |access-date=2 June 2020}}{{cite web |url=https://labourlist.org/2018/08/blairs-legacy-is-toxic-thats-why-we-need-a-soft-left-revival/ |title=Blair's legacy is toxic. That's why we need a soft left revival |last=Fisher |first=Trevor |date=15 August 2018 |website=LabourList|access-date=2 June 2020}}
• John Denham{{Cite news |last=Wintour |first=Patrick |date=19 March 2003 |title=Home Office minister leads handful of government resignations |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/19/iraq.iraq3 |access-date=22 January 2023}}
• Anneliese Dodds{{cite news|work=The Daily Telegraph|title=New Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds tasked with taking on Rishi Sunak|date=7 April 2020|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/04/07/former-mep-university-lecturer-tasked-taking-chancellor/}}
• Angela Eagle{{cite news |last1=Pickard |first1=Jim |title=Angela Eagle carries the hopes of Labour's soft left |url=https://www.ft.com/content/e33ce1d0-4690-11e6-8d68-72e9211e86ab |accessdate=14 July 2019 |work=Financial Times |date=11 July 2016}}
• Barry Gardiner{{cite news|work=New Statesman|title=Keir Starmer keeps his friends close and his enemies closer in astute first reshuffle|date=5 April 2020|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/04/keir-starmer-keeps-his-friends-close-and-his-enemies-closer-astute-first}}
• Kate Green
• Nia Griffith{{cite news|work=Financial Times|title=Corbyn gives Labour defence brief to anti-Trident MP|date=6 October 2016|url=https://www.ft.com/content/787af24c-8be1-11e6-8aa5-f79f5696c731}}
• Louise Haigh{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
• Emma Hardy{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
• John Healey{{cite book|title=The British General Election of 2017|page=84|first=Philip|last=Cowley|year=2018|publisher=Springer}}
• Sadiq Khan{{cite news |last1=Hill |first1=Dave |title=A Sadiq Khan win in London would expose the failings of Jeremy Corbyn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2016/feb/01/a-sadiq-khan-win-in-london-would-expose-the-failings-of-jeremy-corbyn |accessdate=14 July 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=1 February 2016}}
• Anna McMorrin{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
• Ed Miliband{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
• Lisa Nandy{{cite news |last1=Stone |first1=Jon |title=Labour leadership contest abuse 'reminded me of far right', MP Lisa Nandy says |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-contest-abuse-reminded-me-of-far-right-mp-lisa-nandy-says-a7330316.html |accessdate=14 July 2019 |work=The Independent |date=26 September 2016}}
• Angela Rayner{{cite news |last1=Moss |first1=Stephen |title=Labour's Angela Rayner: 'Ideology never put food on my table' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/28/angela-rayner-shadow-education-secretary-interview |accessdate=14 July 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=28 July 2017}}
• Alex Sobel{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
• Paul Sweeney{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/23/labour-is-coming-back-in-scotland-party-predicts-revival-as-corbyn-heads-north| work=The Guardian | title='Labour is coming back in Scotland': party predicts revival as Corbyn heads north| date=23 August 2017| accessdate=3 November 2020}}
• Neil Kinnock
• John Smith
• Emily Thornberry{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

{{Portal|Socialism|United Kingdom}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Anti-Stalinist left
• Bevanism
• Blairism
• Brownism
• Centre-left politics
• Centrism
• Democratic socialism
• Left-wing politics
• Militant tendency
• Momentum (organisation)
• New Labour
• Political moderate
• Social democracy
• Social Democratic Party (UK)
• Third Way
• Tribune (magazine)

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.compassonline.org.uk/uploads/documents/WhatIsTheDemocraticLeft.doc What Is the Democratic Left?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204192133/http://www.compassonline.org.uk/uploads/documents/WhatIsTheDemocraticLeft.doc |date=2012-02-04 }}.
• [http://century.guardian.co.uk/1980-1989/Story/0,,110263,00.html John Carvel and Patrick Wintour. Kinnock wins accord on defence switch Guardian. 10 May 1989].
• [http://www.infoshop.org/LeftGuide Field Guide to the American Left].
• [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/09/labour-activists-launch-new-group-on-partys-left Labour activists launch new group on party's left].

Category:1981 neologisms

Category:Labour Party (UK) factions