The shadow communities secretary, Lisa Nandy, will claim the Conservative leadership contest has shown the government’s commitment to equalization is dead, as she announces plans to give local communities the right to buy assets such as empty shops.
Nandy will use a speech in Darlington to say Labor will push ahead with devolution to communities outside London and the South East in a bid to rebalance the UK economy.
“Those voices in the Tory party who tried to push through the equalization agenda have been decisively defeated and now the ugly truth is out as leadership contenders vie for Margaret Thatcher’s mantle, promising tax cuts for the rich, deregulation , and a more managed decline across the UK,” she is expected to say.
“In short, the Tories’ commitment to equalization is dead. But leveling isn’t dead. Not for the millions who voted for change – and who need and deserve to see it implemented.”
She will announce that a Labor government will create a new ‘community right to buy’, giving local groups first refusal to bid for long-empty high street shops, as well as assets identified as important by councils such as football clubs, pubs and playing fields.
Communities are already allowed to bid for these so-called assets of public value, but on top of first refusal Labor will also give them a year to raise funds, up from the current six months.
Labor has also asked Mark Gregory, former chief economist at Ernst & Young, to lead a commission on how communities can best bring together public and private sector funding to generate revenue that can be used locally.
Nandi is expected to say, “This is the first step towards greater financial autonomy for our small, rural and urban communities. The only conditions attached are that it must raise revenue to be used and passed down through the generations, and that it must be guided by the wishes of the community, held in common, and used for the common good.
“Because what is needed is not a Hunger Games-style grant system where we have to go to Whitehall, but financial autonomy.”
Her intervention comes after Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said Labor had nothing to fear from any of the Conservative leadership candidates.
Asked by Sky News’ Sophie Ridge which candidate her party was most worried about, Phillipson said: “I’m not worried about any of them. I don’t think there is anything to fear from any of the candidates and the reason for that is that they have all supported Boris Johnson and the Conservative government for 12 years now.
“And during these 12 years, what happened in our country? We see our vital public services, whether they are schools or hospitals, getting worse and worse. Britain is completely blocked. You can’t renew your passport, more and more people are going to food banks, rising levels of child poverty.
Labor strategists were surprised by the extent to which cabinet ministers were prepared to disavow the history of a government in which they still serve.
In particular, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has the support of Boris Johnson loyalists Nadine Dorris and Jacob Rees-Mogg, has questioned her party’s handling of the economy.
“Now is the time to be bold,” she said at her campaign launch last week. “We cannot have economic management as usual which has led to decades of low growth.” Comments like this are being saved by Labor for future election campaigns.
Some senior Labor figures were concerned about a potential election appeal by Penny Mordaunt, who performed well in focus groups, but were reassured by her failure to set out detailed policy.
“She’s very shallow,” said one shadow minister, adding that Tom Tugendhat could pose a bigger challenge to Labor but had no chance of winning. Tugendhat remained in fifth position in Thursday’s second round of voting.
Keir Starmer will have one of his last opportunities for an extended debate against Johnson on Monday after the government tabled a confidence vote. The decision followed a row last week after Labor tabled its own motion asking MPs to express their confidence in a Johnson-led government.
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The government initially refused to allow parliamentary time to debate Labour’s proposal – before tabling its own, more narrowly worded to exclude mention of Boris Johnson.
Monday’s motion is almost certain to be easily won by the government, which still has a working majority of 73 despite several recent by-election losses.
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