This event is exclusive to Friends of Tortoise
This is a newsroom ThinkIn. In-person and digital-only tickets are available.
The Labour party was built by and for the working class and, as Ernie Bevin put it, the party “grew out of the bowels of the Trade Union Congress” to become one of the two main political parties in the UK today. Yet, since 1966, the Labour party has won only four elections.
Trade Union membership has halved since its peak in the late 70’s and, today, the majority of Labour’s membership is considered ‘middle class’.
What and who is the Labour party for in 2022? And why do they spend so much time on their own internal battles? Join us for a ThinkIn where we’ll discuss whether socialism, trade unions and the working class are in fact the obstacles to Labour’s success.
editor and invited experts

Lara Spirit
Reporter
Ayesha Hazarika
former senior Labour adviser to Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband
Denis MacShane
Former Labour MP and Author of ‘Must Labour Always Lose?’
Nathan Yeowell
Director, Progressive Britain; Editor, Rethinking Labour’s Past