While the stubbornly high cost of living — especially food prices — is “safe” ground on which Labour can compete with the Tories, the party must also engage with matters of identity and culture. Indeed, this is the argument made in a new report jointly published by British Future and Labour Together on how a prospective government led by Sir Keir Starmer can bridge cultural divides — stressing that no progressive party has won an election without “first embracing the symbols of the country they aspire to lead”.

The Tamworth by-election offers a chance for Labour to reconnect with Middle England. According to the 2021 Census, residents in Tamworth were more likely than the rest of the country to exclusively label themselves as “English” in regards to national identity. In the most recent census, “British” was moved to the response option at the top of the form, perhaps influencing how people self-identified, yet even with this change 22% of Tamworth constituents still reported an English-only national identification, compared to a nationwide figure of 14%. 

Tamworth holds a significant place in English history as the principal centre of royal power in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia in the eighth and ninth centuries before the unification of 927 AD under Æthelstan. More recently, it has been commonly associated with Sir Robert Peel. One of the UK’s most influential prime ministers and widely regarded as the godfather of modern policing in England, he served as its MP for two decades from 1830 to 1850.

Labour has for some years struggled to recognise the importance to many of English pride — at times even mocking the idea. Think back to 2014, when Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry tweeted out a photo of a house in Rochester, Kent draped in English flags with a white van in the drive. Journalist Paul Mason, who continues to look for a seat in which he can run as a Labour candidate in the next general election, once wrote in the Guardian that he didn’t want to be English and that “any attempt to create an English identity will fail.” 

Starmer’s party must reject these attitudes to make headway in English provincial towns that have previously made up its support base. If Labour can both engage with voters’ economic insecurities and value their cultural feelings of Englishness, then it may win Tamworth in the forthcoming by-election. 

Should this happen, it would show how far the Labour Party has come in the post-Corbyn era on matters of English identity, national heritage, and traditional civic pride.

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Dr Rakib Ehsan is a researcher specialising in British ethnic minority socio-political attitudes, with a particular focus on the effects of social integration and intergroup relations.

 

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