Our members are not going to listen to Labour again until they see that Labour is listening to them

Mike Clancy: “Our members are not going to listen to Labour again until they see that Labour is listening to them”

Prospect is a politically independent union, but it would be a mistake to believe we are not invested in the success of this government. Prospect members vote across the political spectrum, but many of the current government’s policies align with our values and objectives.

A government of the Right would launch an assault on workers and unions

The government is in the process of rolling out the largest upgrade to worker and trade union rights in a generation, but the likely alternative represents an existential threat to trade unions and rights at work.

It is increasingly clear that a government of the Right, whether Reform or Conservative or some combination of the two, would launch an all-out assault on workers and unions. They would not stop at repealing the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA), but go much further, attacking core union rights like facility time, and dismantling hard-won pension rights for public sector workers.

This is the prism through which we view the outcome of the local and devolved elections and subsequent debates about leadership. Any time lost now implementing the ERA benefits only employers intent on avoiding union access and worker voice.

Labour needs a fundamental change in approach

Ironically, the prospect of a Reform assault on working people is only possible because Labour is losing the support of the very workers who powered its election victory. A survey of Prospect members conducted just before the recent elections found that support for Labour has more than halved in two years, from 44% just before the 2024 general election, to 16% now.

These people are in many ways the exact voters you would expect a Labour government to appeal to. They are highly educated and work in specialist functions across the public and private sectors, often in industries the government is championing such as clean energy and defence. They are broadly progressive, overwhelmingly voted Remain, and are union members at a time when the government is more pro-union than any in recent history.

Labour is not predominantly losing Prospect members to the right. Our survey found 11% of members support Reform, only up marginally from 2024. Instead, the Labour vote has fractured in multiple directions. More of our members who voted for this government in 2024 said they were intending to vote for the Greens than Labour, with a similar number on the fence. These two groups are the people Labour, and whoever leads them into the next election, needs to win over.

What Labour can do to win back Prospect members

There are five things I think Labour could practically do to win back Prospect members over the coming years.

1. The cost of living and inflation are the biggest priorities for our members, and voters in general. Some of that is out of the government’s control due to international events, but there are some levers it can pull – like giving fair pay rises to public sector workers. Targeted support on energy bills would also help the lowest paid and dampen some of the inflationary impact of the energy price spike.

2. The government must make more of the genuinely transformational impact of the ERA. We know these measures are popular in theory, but they will not move voters unless they are seen and felt. The government must not only delivers the remaining measures on time, but do so loudly and unapologetically. They are facing opponents who are committed to rolling back rights and have derided the idea of work-life balance.

3. Labour must be clearer about their vision for the economy. Prospect members work in some of the most dynamic and growing parts of the economy; from tech to renewables, from the creative industries to defence. These are the sectors that the government prioritised in its industrial strategy last year, but if you ask our members very few would know that fact and even fewer will have seen any tangible impact of this strategy. The industrial strategy promised more, better jobs in these key industries, yet so far only one of the sectors has actually delivered a jobs plan.

4. We need a government that stands up for the public sector. One of the key groups of Prospect members who have moved away from Labour over the last couple of years are our members in the public sector, predominantly civil servants. Too often we have seen a tendency to indulge in lazy attacks on civil servants, and the ‘blockers’ rhetoric about regulators has left the skilled professionals who do this vital work feeling underappreciated and bruised. When the Right are trying to pit private sector workers against their public sector neighbours, we need a government that challenges this narrative.

5. Our members need to see more clearly that this is a government that shares their values and will fight for them. They see the country and the world moving in a dangerous direction and want to see their government resisting that trend. This is not a call for gesture politics, but there are issues where the government could be louder – like on climate; or where they could embrace a much bolder position such as on Europe. There are others where they should change course entirely, like on legal migration and settlement where the current approach is both alienating voters and undermining economic growth in key sectors.

Our members are not going to listen to Labour again until they see that Labour is listening to them.

I do not believe the government has lost the support of Prospect members permanently, but there is work to do in order to regain trust and rebuild support. That must start now.

A longer version of this article originally appeared on LabourList.