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Thesoft left, also known as theopen left,inside left and historically as theTribunite left, is a faction within the BritishLabour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left, represented by formerleaderMichael Foot, from thehard left, represented byTony Benn. People belonging to the soft left may be calledsoft leftists orTribunites.
In the context of the Labour Party, the term "soft left" was coined in1981, whenNeil Kinnock refused to supportTony Benn for thedeputy leadership of the Labour Party (seeHistory). It described a faction of the party which disagreed with theconservative tendencies of the Labour right and the radical tendencies of the "Bennite" left, also known as thehard left.[1] In parliament, it was represented by theTribune Group of MPs and consequently came to be known as the Tribunite left as well.[2][3] The soft left also aligned itself with theLabour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC).[4]
The soft left was initially considered another faction in the Labour left along with the Bennite left, though unlike the Bennite left, it was willing to compromise on some issues to keep the party united and electable.[5] Neil Kinnock, a leader of the soft left, became leader of the Labour Party in1983.[6] When he moved rightwards in this role, the soft left followed him.[7] As alliances were made between the soft left and the party leadership, the ideological distinctiveness of the LCC and the Tribune Group declined.[4] The soft left formed an alliance with the Labour right to oppose the Bennite left and support Kinnock's leadership.[8][9] During his leadership, the soft left also formed a new moderniser faction with members of the Labour right against the party's traditionalist faction.[10] The soft left was no longer an identifiable faction on the Labour left by the time of the1992 general election,[4] with the Tribune Group disbanding by the timeTony Blair became Labour leader in1994.[1] The process whereby the soft left drifted away from the Labour left and pitched itself against the Bennite left is known as the "realignment of the left".[11]
In modern politics, the soft left refers to a faction in the Labour Party which opposed theNew Labour project but has avoided the politics of the modern Labour left, also known as the hard left.[12] Ideologically, it is described ascentre-left[13] and is typically thought to occupy the space in the party between the Labour left and the Labour right.[14][15][16] While the Labour left is more supportive of socialism, the soft left is more supportive ofsocial democracy.[17] It believes in compromising more traditional socialist policies to make Labour more electable.[18] It is one of the four main factions in the modern Labour Party.[19][20]
The term "soft left" has been said to carry negative connotations which can suggest a less enthusiastic approach to socialism. It has been argued that the term "inside left" should be used instead.[21] The left-leaning magazinesNew Statesman andTribune have used the term as well.[22][23] However, unlike the term "hard left", which can be consideredpejorative,[24] "soft left" members have used the term as a self-descriptor to distance themselves from the "hard left".[19] Soft left MPLisa Nandy advocates a "better name" for the faction; she has said the term "sounds a bit like you've sort of collapsed into a jellyfish".[25]Open Labour, the main organisation representing the soft left,[16] has preferred to use the term "open left".[26]
The distinction between hard and soft left became evident during the leadership ofMichael Foot (1980–1983), who, along withTony Benn, was one of the two figureheads of the party left. Supporters of Foot (ananti-communist whose background was in theTribune group) and Benn (originally on the party's right but by the end of the 1970s to Foot's left and a more uncompromising supporter ofunilateral nuclear disarmament) became increasingly polarised.[27][28]
In theelection for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 1981,left-wingers such asNeil Kinnock abstained from voting for Tony Benn, signaling the emergence of an independent soft left grouping in the party.[29][30] The term came to be used in contrast tohard left, who were more explicitlysocialist in rhetoric, remaining associated with Benn.[16] In common with the party right, the soft left was suspicious of the hard left's alliance withTrotskyism (particularly its links withMilitant), supported aparliamentary rather than extra-parliamentary road to socialism, retreated from a commitment to wideningpublic ownership of the economy, and tended towardsAtlanticist orEuropeanist rather thananti-imperialist foreign policy.[31][32]
The parliamentary group which came to be associated with the soft left was theTribune group. TheTribune group was formed around thenewspaper of the same name and had represented the party left as a whole until Benn's allies formed theSocialist Campaign Group. TheLabour Co-ordinating Committee grew to become the soft left's main factional organisation in the 1980s, despite having begun its life as a Bennite or "hard left" body.[29][16] The soft left, influenced by the intellectual interventions of Mike Rustin,Geoff Hodgson andPeter Hain, increasingly rejected thesocialism from above ofStalinism andsocial democracy. It stressedpluralism, including multifarious forms ofsocial ownership and widening Labour's electoral coalition.[16] Figures identified with the soft left in the 1980s included MPsDavid Blunkett,Robin Cook,Bryan Gould andClare Short.[29]
While Kinnock initially emerged from the soft left, portraying himself as a "media-friendly Michael Foot", he tacked to the right of the Tribune group, although they continued to vote with him in theNational Executive Committee.[33] Soft left candidates increasingly gained positions in the party leadership after 1983, but Kinnock and deputy leaderRoy Hattersley kept the party to their right. Kinnock's defeat in the1992 general election signalled an end to the soft left's rise, as they were increasingly marginalised by the modernisation project associated withTony Blair.[16] The 1980s soft left began to diverge over time; for example, some figures (such as Blunkett) became loyalists to Blair by the end of the 1990s.[29] However, activist figures such as theNational Executive Committee memberAnn Black and a range of MPs continued to work as part of the 'broad left'.
In 2015,Neal Lawson, the chair of thethink tankCompass, identified the organisation as a successor to the soft left.[29] Compass disaffiliated from Labour in 2011 in order to open up their membership to people belonging to other political parties.[34] The activist groupOpen Labour was launched in 2015 with the aim of developing a new forum for the soft left political tradition within the party, which it hopes to recast as the "Open Left".[35][36][16] In the2017 general election, several Open Labour activists were elected to Parliament including Open Labour TreasurerAlex Sobel,Emma Hardy, andRosie Duffield.
In the aftermath of the party leadership (2015–20) ofJeremy Corbyn, who has been identified as a hard left MP, the term was generally used to mean "the space betweenCorbynite remnants on the left, andProgress andLabour First on the right".[16]Keir Starmer, the current leader of the Labour Party, andAngela Rayner, the current deputy leader, have both been described as soft left.[16][37][38]
People belonging to the soft left may be called soft leftists[39] or Tribunites.[40] The following Labour politicians are often considered to have been on the soft left of the party for at least some of their careers, but may not identify themselves as such:
