Foreword from the Renewal Editors

As we write this, Renewal re-launched one year and one day ago. In the editorial which accompanied that re-launch, our first as co-editors, we wrote that Labour found itself in a strange position of simultaneous strength and weakness, possessed of a commanding majority but beset by scandal and lacking a clear sense of identity or direction. One year in, despite some meaningful legislative achievements for the government, the situation has precipitously deteriorated.

There are many lessons to draw from the first two years of the Labour government. Among them is that a government without direction is vulnerable to shifting headwinds. The position of Labour after the local elections is of a party that must find a strong course if it is to salvage the remainder of its term in power and make the most of the opportunities of government. 

A year ago, we wrote that social democrats needed both “an intellectual openness to new ideas” and a “clear sighted analysis of the political terrain”. It is in this spirit that we are delighted to publish this collection by the Tribune Group of Labour MPs, which lays out their economic thinking, and grapples with how to apply it to the urgent issues facing the Labour Party and our country. 

Insofar as Renewal has a theory of change and influence, it is that successful social democracy requires its practitioners to think both practically and ideologically: in that spirit we are happy to present this set of essays – which we believe offers just that kind of thinking. 

Morgan Jones, David Klemperer, Jack Jeffrey, and Lise Butler have co-edited Renewal since 2025.