By Mathew Hulbert
It was, I’ll admit, rather nice to hear Andy Burnham praising the Liberal Democrats during his first Commons speech as Prime Minister on Tuesday.
After years in which relations between Labour and the Lib Dems haven’t always been entirely cordial, a Labour Prime Minister openly recognising the contribution the party I’ve been a member of for sixteen years is to be welcomed.
But Lib Dem leader Ed Davey should also beware a Labour leader bearing gifts.
Because there is a danger here for the Liberal Democrats – and it is a substantial one.
Burnham is attempting to present himself as a different kind of Labour Prime Minister: more pluralist, more willing to work across political divides and less tribal about where good ideas come from. Much of that should be applauded.
Indeed, there are areas where Lib Dems should enthusiastically work with this government.
The most obvious is reforming our broken politics. If Burnham is serious about doing politics differently, that must include replacing First Past the Post for Westminster (and other) elections with a proportional voting system-and doing so as soon as possible.
On Europe, social care, tackling inequality and strengthening our public services, too, there should be plenty of opportunities for constructive cooperation.
But cooperation must never become absorption.
The electoral danger for the Liberal Democrats is obvious. If voters begin to see us and Burnham’s Labour as essentially interchangeable, why vote for us when Labour is currently the party capable of actually delivering change nationally?
It is hard enough for the Lib Dems to secure any kind of meaningful attention in Britain’s political and media landscape as it is. If we allow ourselves to be portrayed as little more than the smiley liberal wing of Burnhamism, it will become nigh impossible.
And, vitally, Liberalism is not simply a nicer version of Labourism.
It is a distinct political creed of its own right, whose historical tentacles go back centuries.
We believe in dispersing power rather than hoarding it. In putting liberty and human rights at the heart of government. In internationalism, community, political pluralism and trusting people with decisions about their own lives.
Those principles will sometimes lead us to the same conclusions as Labour. At other times, they absolutely should not.
So Ed Davey and his parliamentary team must be prepared to work constructively with Burnham where Labour advances liberal causes – but also to provide robust, unmistakably liberal opposition whenever the government does the opposite.
This isn’t the opposition for opposition’s sake that the Tories and others go in for. Nor does it require returning to the tired tribalism that has poisoned progressive politics for too long.
It means knowing who we are.
Burnham’s praise presents the Liberal Democrats with an opportunity. A Labour Prime Minister who recognises that his party doesn’t possess a monopoly on wisdom could help usher in the more pluralist politics Britain so desperately needs.
But it also presents us with a test.
We can be Burnham’s partners when he is right and his fiercest critics when he is wrong.
What we cannot afford is to become his political annex.
Who Wrote this?..
