By Tom Fowdy
Long ago, my grandfather (1935-2016) built his career as a working man in Sunderland's shipbuilding and maritime industries on the River Wear. To him, the UK Labour Party was an integral part of his personal identity, that's because it represented his trade, his class, and his economic livelihood. By the time the 1990s came, he was lucky enough to retire comfortably as the city's industries evaporated amidst the neoliberal, free-market fundamentalist ideology of the Conservative promulgated mass unemployment across the North East and similar areas of the country.
Still, even as Labour pivoted economically rightwards, and became a "social liberal" kind of party, he stuck to the red rosette until the day he died, and could not believe that as a disillusioned young man in my 20s, I had opted to support UKIP in 2014; not because he disagreed with some of its key positions, but because Labour was a way of life and an "essential" allegiance, even if the party had moved on from the legacy he remembered. As the old saying goes, someone could "put a red rosette on a donkey" in Sunderland and the people would vote Labour. These places became colloquially referred to in British political discourse as "the Red Wall" because they were always Labour, so to speak.
However, all things must come to an end. At the time of writing, the polls were set to close for the local elections in England. Predictions and forecasts suggest that Labour are headed for a historic defeat, especially so in Sunderland and the North East of England, where they may receive their worst local election results in the course of a century. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but the local mood and the polling analysis paint a broad consensus of the direction things are heading. While a lot of this has been influenced by the historic unpopularity of Sir Keir Starmer's government, there is also an identity shift that goes alongside it, one which has propelled the rise of Nigel Farage's Reform UK to the top of polls.
The old identity of the industrial north, as per my grandfather's life, was built upon trade unionism and worker's economic interests. As an industrial city, Labour was supported because it was the policy of the old school Labour governments, such as Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson, to support full-employment, guarantee workers rights and improve the standard of living for ordinary people. The Conservatives on the other hand, were deemed to represent the upper classes; it had nothing to do with the "culture war" politics of the day. However, when one rips away the economic underpinning of a social identity, it persists for a while, but then fades with each generation.
Myself, born in 1992, was part of the very first generation born into a "Post-industrial Sunderland" whereby the mines and shipyards were all gone. The impact of deindustrialisation in these northern regions led to major social upheaval, decline, deprivation and despair. If there was no longer an industrial economy so to speak, then likewise nor does the socio-political identity exist. Thus, the Labour identity began to fade over time, and with it an identity of "English nationalism" began to take root amongst older generations and working-class "left behind" communities. As this happened, Labour likewise lost their core economic purpose, and became increasingly affiliated with a "metropolitan left" way of thinking which such Northern communities perceived to be out of touch.
The first break was undoubtedly the Referendum on the European Union (Brexit) 2016, whereby Sunderland made headlines for becoming the first location in the country to declare a romping "leave" result. This result itself was a fracture point in British politics, reshaping it through a new identity dynamic, and even Boris Johnson was successful in taking multiple seats in County Durham in the 2019 general election. How could this ever happen in former County Durham mining communities?
Labour supporters point out that the likes of Boris, as well as Reform UK, represent "wealthy people" and the "upper classes" but the point is, the old configuration of class politics no longer resonates with these people for it has been replaced with national identity. Thus, the unintended "consequences" of Brexit, including the "small boats" fiasco, the wave of immigration into the country post-covid, the subsequent loathing of that Conservative government, alongside events such as the Southport stabbings and the riots that followed (Sunderland being another flashpoint), and the unpopularity of Keir Starmer, have all acted as trigger points which have completed this radical identity shift and a surge in nationalistic sentiment.
Why does this matter? Because I have been writing about how this surge has been underway in Britain for a long time. The country has become, like the US, increasingly politically polarised and divided on identity grounds. Sunderland, after all has nothing in common with London and this has made the party's famous "broad church" effectively untenable as the Green Party has now emerged as an insurgent force on the left that is eating up Labour's "metropolitan" vote, and the fact of course that the Green Party is deemed a non-starter in these post-industrial communities is a testimony to how much things have changed.
While the general election is still three years away, and we can't make any predictions for them, there is little question that this new "radical identity politics" both left and right, is the new normal for Britain, and that's why traditional, centre-leaning parties have lost support. The Red Wall, even if at the local authority level for now, may collapse, and more so, we should pay close attention as to whether this seismic shift brings about the end of Keir Starmer, which will have radical consequences for Britain's foreign policy and how Labour responds to these challenges.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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