Five years ago today, the Labour Party manifesto for the 2017 General Election was officially launched at Bradford University 🌹
Some had been so excited by it, they wanted people to have it early … but this 🧵 is the story of what happened next …
When he came off stage, Jeremy signed a copy and gave it to me:
“Andrew, a brilliant and superb piece of work to transform lives. Love to you … in deep appreciation, Jeremy”
The manifesto was fully costed, in ‘Funding Britain’s Future’, published the same day
It was the first time a party had done this – credit John McDonnell's innovation and Rory's perspiration and dedication
As John said "The only numbers in Tory manifesto are the page numbers"
The @NME ran a piece entitled “11 massive and brilliant things in the Labour manifesto”
It enthused: "The poor won’t be screwed by the rich, younger generations won’t find housing and education so unattainable. To put it bluntly, it sounds great."
nme.com/blogs/nme-blog…
The @guardian Editorial said:
“This manifesto proclaims that politics and government in Britain do not have to be done in the way the country has long been accustomed to.
“Its achievement is to expand the limits of the thinkable in British politics.”
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Then at @HuffPost, @paulwaugh said:
“This is a 21st century leftism, rolling back some Thatcherite policy while acting on modern problems like the ‘gig’ economy”
“As well as a revival of tax-and-spend politics, the other big hallmark of the Corbyn manifesto is universalism.” ✊
In their book on the 2017 election, Kavanagh & Cowley write:
“the manifesto was also extremely popular among party supporters and campaigners; candidates and local organisers talked of how the policies had energised party workers and had given them something to offer voters”
Between its official launch and polling day, the manifesto was downloaded from the Labour Party website an astonishing six million times – and thousands of copies were sold from the Labour website raising vital election funds
Emily Thornberry, a month after #GE2017 said
“The star of the show was the manifesto… there is another way, it doesn’t have to be this way, there is an alternative. Austerity doesn’t work.
“Politically, what has happened is that politics has moved: the centre ground has moved”
When running for the Labour leadership in 2020 Keir Starmer, told party members,
“We should treat the 2017 manifesto as our foundational document, the radicalism and the hope that that inspired across the country was real. So we have to hang on to that as we go forward.”
No manifesto should be preserved in aspic. Times and priorities change. But the case for redistributive taxation, investment & public ownership is timeless
Kavanagh & Cowley say “Few general election manifestos are remembered. Even fewer make much difference” This one did
🧵ends
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