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PAUL WILENIUS: Peter Kilfoyle. The former
Defence Minister. He's packing up his Ministerial office in the Commons
for the last time. He's going home, to fight new battles. They're far
different from the one's he fought against Militant, when he was first
elected to parliament.
PETER KILFOYLE: They were very testing
times. The Labour Party itself was seen as in the grip of extremists. We
needed to dispose of Militant at the same time as we tried to change the
policies, to modernise the Labour Party, before it could become electable
again.
WILENIUS: But now he feels the
time is right to move on and after two and half years loyal service at
the centre of new Labour, he's going back to the North, where his heart
is. Peter Kilfoyle stunned the Labour Party when quit as a Defence Minister
to spend more time with his constituents. But his fight for Labour's
traditional supporters is backed by many activists, Labour MPs and even
Ministers here at Westminster. They are worried that Labour is being damaged
by the emerging gap between the government and the party and voters in
Labour's heartlands. Things have moved on since the election almost three
years ago. Many Labour voters and activists hoped the government would
deliver real improvements in their lives, but those high expectations have
not been fulfilled in some areas. As a Minister, Kilfoyle couldn't speak
up for these people.
KILFOYLE: The real frustration
would come when there would be things in my surgeries which I couldn't
really answer properly - in my heart of hearts I couldn't say to individuals
look this is the right direction that I am taking. I found that incredibly
frustrating. The image that is portrayed of how the country is going
doesn't actually resemble the reality of their lives and they feel in many
regards as though somehow there's some sort of vast conspiracy to defraud
them.
WILENIUS: Eighteen months ago On
The Record came here to Liverpool to highlight the dangers if new Labour
neglected its heartlands. With the local elections only a few months away,
some in Downing Street may try to shrug off eter's criticisms but they'll
not find that easy.
FRASER KEMP MP: He certainly can't be dismissed.
Peter Kilfoyle played a very important part in the regeneration of the
Labour Party, not least in Merseyside during the 1980s and he is a serious
player and he clearly does have concerns.
CLAIRE WARD MP: There's heartlands in every
seat. There's people who worked for the Labour Party through those bad
times and who stayed with us because they believed that when Labour got
into power, we would make a difference. There is people who stayed with
us in the voting. We've all got heartlands. I'm absolutely confident about
that and I want to make sure that the heartlands in my constituency are
happy too.
WILENIUS: The clear message from
Peter's activists here at Walton in Liverpool is that they're not happy.
UNNAMED WOMAN: You could say that people are actually
satisfied so therefore they don't have to bother going out to vote. But
I don't think that is the case. I think the feeling is that even if they
go out to vote they're not going to have an impact on anything that will
affect their lives.
WILENIUS: Many feel new Labour
is too obsessed with Middle England voters in the South and media headlines.
UNNAMED MAN: I'm still active as, more
active than 90 per cent of the people who go around calling themselves
new Labour. I don't see them going down the streets canvassing with me,
I don't see them doing leaflets. I don't seen them telephone canvassing.
I see their name on a list. I see the name saying they joined during the
great Blair revolution, but I don't see them doing anything about it.
UNNAMED WOMAN: Labour is Labour and it should have
the old values, that is what people expected when the Labour government
came in that they would have better prospects.
KILFOYLE: My activists often feel
as though what they say and what they think doesn't really matter a great
deal in the wider scheme of things. We can have quite rational debates
about this and point out all of the changes which have been improvements
over the years, but there is some kind of an emotional barrier there which
is yet to be transcended between what many of the activists see as their
legitimate role within the party and what appears to be a new orthodoxy
at the centre of the party. They have to be treated with tender loving
care like the members of any organisation and sometimes they feel as though
they're not.
DOUG HENDERSON MP: The danger is that the government
doesn't carry the whole of the party membership with it carrying areas
like mine who have very strong priorities. If they fail to get that over
then there is a chance that people feel remote, they feel far away from
London, they feel far away from the decision making process, they feel
far away from the decisions.
WILENIUS: Indeed, activists feel
shut out of key decisions on issues like education spending. Here in Liverpool,
Peter was once a teacher and he knows some schools are crumbling through
lack of cash.
NICHOLAS FLEMING: It presents a problem and we
have to come to some sort of Heath Robinson way of fixing the roof.
WILENIUS: Nicholas Fleming is the
head of Fazakerley High School. The school buildings are old and decaying
and teachers battle with this daily to deliver a good education for their
eight hundred students. But Peter knows this is part of a much wider debate
raging inside the Labour Party. Some would prefer more money spent on ailing
public services like health and education than pre-election tax cuts.
KILFOYLE: I think that we'll have
to refocus on public services even more than we have done to date. I think
it's been quite laudable the allocation of more monies to some of the public
services, many of them remember delivered by local authorities that have
felt under the squeeze for quite some years now, but at the end of it all
people in areas like this are heavily dependent upon public services.
If there is a straight choice between tax cuts and investment in public
services, I'm duty bound to say that I would go for public services.
WILENIUS: The sky high property
prices in some parts of the booming South are in stark contrast to the
dereliction in parts of the North. Peter meets one property developer Tom
Bloxham who's trying to regenerate parts of Liverpool. Some fear billions
of pounds of much needed European funding for areas like this are being
blocked by the Treasury.
KILFOYLE: There are issues, regional
issues which I feel are very, very important to the people of a city like
Liverpool which I want to be able to speak out on in an honest way and
hopefully making suggestions which will be taken on board by the government.
WILENIUS: Picking up this suggestion
would mean matching the European Objective One funding on offer.
DEVELOPER: What's actually happened as
the regeneration issue has risen on the government's agenda it's become
harder and harder to access the resource necessary.
KILFOYLE: t's a funding issue,
is that what it's down to.
DEVELOPER: A big part of it is, it's a
funding issue. Actually, through European legislation things are changing,
it's actually harder now to find the necessary resources than when we did
this one.
KILFOYLE: European funding is critical
to an area like this. It's recognised in Europe as one of the poorest in
the whole of Europe and there are other areas around the United Kingdom
which get Objective One funding.
HENDERSON: There is a sense that
the regional issue hasn't been dealt with, the things that matter on jobs
and social conditions in my constituency in Newcastle haven't been addressed
in the same way as some of those other issues and in that sense there is
a feeling that they have been left out a little. And I think they blame
a lot of the people who are advising the government and these so called
spin doctors because they know that the ministers themselves in many cases
represent similar constituencies to mine and they can see when they return
to the constituencies on a Friday the same things that I can see and they
are told the same things that I am told.
WILENIUS: Downing Street in Liverpool
is a far cry from the elegant rooms of Number Ten and the heart of government.,
but Peter feels better able to monitor the pulse of Labour support here
in the local Jobs Centre. People want more and higher paid jobs, and he
feels it would help if the National Minimum Wage was increased .
KILFOYLE: The rate at which the
minimum wage is set has to reflect the real needs of people on the ground.
We have to make it also as attractive as possible for people to work legitimately
- that increases the tax base rather than money going out for example through
benefit fraud.
WILENIUS: Peter Kilfoyle and many
others in the party are warning that there are big dangers for Tony Blair
if he ignores the message from the heartlands. In some areas Labour voters
may well switch to other parties. But just as dangerous is the threat that
many once loyal supporters will simply stay at home . Labour's high command
is now waking up to the grave political threat posed by its crumbling core
vote. Here in Liverpool the Liberal Democrats have prospered from the alienation
of Labour supporters. In Scotland and Wales the nationalists have also
done well. The fear is that new Labour's glossy image is turning off traditional
voters.
KILFOYLE: In these seats I think
that there was a feeling after the election that the presentation had
overtaken the, the substance. My concern is that there was also a discernible
trend of people staying at home in those areas - solid Labour voters who
didn't bother to turn out.
WARD MP: The risk of people just
staying at home at the next election is one that the Labour Party has got
to see as a real issue. So I don't believe they will desert us , to go
elsewhere. The risk is that they may stay at home. Now what we have to
do is to make sure we are addressing those issues. That people believe
there is an even greater reason next time to come out and vote than there
was in 1997.
KEMP: I think there is a recognition
within all levels of the government that you know we've got to get out
there and sell the message, and make sure that we communicate it effectively
to our core supporters. Turnout is always a big issue when it comes to
election campaigns and you know we, we need to ensure that we get the highest
possible levels of turnout we need to motivate our core supporters and
I think that's a big challenge, it's a big task.
WILENIUS: MPs and activists insist
that Labour's heartland voters will not be motivated , until the government
does more to improve their lives.
HENDERSON: I think the big danger is that
people, people think that the government doesn't stand for anything except
being re-elected. What is important is that the government makes it clear
that it does stand for values, it stands for important issues in our society
and the government has to make it clear that that is the case. Less reliance
on spin doctors and more reliance on tackling the real issues that matter
to people throughout the whole country.
KILFOYLE: I think a party without
activists is in danger of becoming an irrelevance. I, I have this nightmare
in my own mind where you have something similar to what happens in America,
where you have effectively two parties with not a great deal to choose
between them, where everything is determined on a personality basis, where
people are elected depending on how much money they can amass from relatively
few donors and huge numbers of people are effectively disenfranchised or
disenfranchise themselves.
WILENIUS: So Peter's starting a
new journey. It may end up with him running for the job of Mayor of Liverpool
or Merseyside. But until then he'll leave the government in no doubt that
taking its heartlands for granted , is no longer an option.
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