Jeremy Corbyn has set his sights on building up Labour’s support in the former industrial heartlands that were once the party’s strongholds and seaside towns which have suffered as the UK’s economy has changed.
A new unit is being launched by Labour which will work with activists and trade unions to campaign on issues affecting local communities across the country.
Mr Corbyn said the move showed Labour was “a movement” rather than simply a political party, and could help make a difference to people’s lives even while in opposition at Westminster.
The new community organising unit will work with Constituency Labour Parties to help members develop skills to win local campaigns, but will also forge links with people outside party politics.
The unit will have a particular organising focus on post-industrial communities where the Labour vote increased by less than average in the 2017 election, as well as marginal seats that Mr Corbyn needs to win to become the next prime minister.
Mr Corbyn said: “Community organising will further invigorate our party. We will empower people to campaign – and win – in their communities and workplaces on issues that matter to them.
“We will focus particularly on working with communities, such as Britain’s post-industrial and seaside towns, that have been held back and forgotten by economic change that has only benefited a wealthy elite.
“Our party was formed out of the labour movement and we are a movement once again.
“By organising more effectively with communities across the country, not only can we build support to help Labour win elections, form a government and transform our society, we can make real, practical differences to people’s lives, even while in opposition.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here