The group has recently had to make redundancies, with up to 15% of staff leaving since 2024 amongst The Times reports that the think tank has become "directionless" due to the leadership of Jonathan Ashworth.[6]
History
2015–2017: Formation
The organisation was set up in June 2015 by John Clarke,[3] a former Blue Labour director, under the name Common Good Labour (renamed Labour Together on 1 September that year),[7] following the Labour Party defeat in the 2015 general election and the resignation of its leader Ed Miliband, intending to learn lessons from Miliband's defeat.[2][1] MP Jon Cruddas, in an attempt to prevent the wider party from fracturing, gathered other MPs including Steve Reed and Lisa Nandy to form the group.[2] Clarke resigned less than a year after establishing the group, allowing Cruddas, Reed and Nandy to step forward as leaders.[3] Labour Together during this time has been described by The Guardian as "initially such a broad church," with members such as former national coordinator of Momentum Laura Parker, as well as Miliband himself.[2] As described by Steve Reed MP "Labour Together is the new unity project open to everyone in our party. It's for supporters of any of the leadership candidates, for people who know that what unites us is bigger than what divides us."[8]
The group involved members from both New Labour and Blue Labour,[9] and by October 2015 had also recruited Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt and Maurice Glasman.[10] Cruddas commented on the group's formation in The Observer that same month, stating that "in the 2015 leadership election we surrendered the argument on devolution. Labour is stuck in an unpopular, outdated politics of taxing and spending and using state control", and that this had placed Labour "into a situation in which a Tory chancellor looks more in tune with our Labour councils in the north than the Labour party itself."[9] Labour Together existed alongside other groups associated with the moderatecentre-left such as Labour for the Common Good.[11][12]
On 31 May 2016, Nandy officially announced the launch of Labour Together, chaired by Cruddas. Before the launch, on 25 May, the group announced a "communities fund" for donations as well as an academy with the aim of teaching party members about campaigning, organising and leadership.[13] The group received initial funding from Nevsky Capital founder Martin Taylor and Trevor Chinn, the latter of whom was appointed as Labour Together's director after donating £10,000. Members often met in parliament or at the House of St Barnabas.[3] The group received initial funding of £75,000 to cover early research and its first staff member, growing to approximately £150,000 over three years. By the time of the 2020 Labour leadership campaign, the group had received about half a million pounds in funding.[14] During this period, Labour Together was led by Luke Murphy.
2017–2020: Support of Keir Starmer for Labour Party leadership
In 2017, Morgan McSweeney took over as director of the organisation at its offices in Vauxhall,[1][2] responsible to a board which included Reed, Nandy, Cruddas and Chinn.[3] Internal documents from the period, later obtained by The Guardian, showed Labour Together's strategic assessment of the party's situation. A document sent to prospective donors warned that the "Hard left [...] will divide our party, condemn us to electoral defeat, attempt to drive out democratic socialists and corrupt our moral purpose in the interest of ideological aims". The group evaluated three potential strategies: forming a new party, challenging Jeremy Corbyn's leadership by recruiting new members, or working to win control when Corbyn stepped down. The group chose to pursue the third option.[14] Under McSweeney's directorship, Labour Together worked with former Labour advisers to investigate online antisemitism. The group identified problematic posts in Facebook groups associated with left-wing politics and the party. They also launched a "Stop funding fake news" campaign targeting websites they considered alt-left or alt-right, which included identifying articles they deemed to contain racist or fake content and contacting advertisers on these sites.[14]
Labour Together relaunched with an unofficial purpose to dissuade moderate MPs from starting a breakaway group after the success of Corbyn in the 2015 Labour leadership election, as well as to obtain control of the party from its left wing.[1] It obtained new funding from donors opposed to Corbyn's leadership,[2] with the donations being reported to the Electoral Commission until December 2017, when the organisation largely stopped reporting them. The Times has stated that after this point, "Labour Together was starting to raise money on a scale and at a speed rarely seen in British politics." Further donations were made in 2018 by Paul Myners, Clive Hollick, Simon Tuttle, Sean Wadsworth and Richard Greer.[3]
Labour Together polled party members on their policy priorities, splitting members into "instrumentalists" (who would vote for any leader that they thought would win the next election), "idealists" (who projected onto Corbyn what they wanted of him), and "ideologues" (who initially signed up to Labour in the 1970s and 1980s, left or were removed, and then rejoined for Corbyn). The group decided that a successor to Corbyn would need to appeal to all of the "instrumentalists" and over one third of the "idealists", and would need to have served under and backed Corbyn, eventually picking Keir Starmer.[2]
Some members of the group backed Starmer in the 2020 Labour leadership election,[2] endorsing McSweeney to be his campaign director, with whom Starmer won the leadership with 56.2% of the vote.[1][2] During the campaign, Labour Together raised £160,000 to fund a cross factional Election Review, and its financial supporters donated £205,000 in total to Starmer, which amounted to 30% of Starmer's cash donations over the campaign's course. These donations were not declared and the group claimed not to back any candidate until after 2022, at which point its public statements began to state that it "played a key role in Keir Starmer's leadership campaign." Starmer immediately appointed McSweeney as his chief of staff, making him the most senior adviser in the Labour Party. Hannah O'Rourke, former advisor to Tristram Hunt, took over as acting director.[3]
During the 2020 Labour Leadership Election, Labour Together convened a cross party review of 2019 Election convened by its acting director Hannah O'Rourke. The review was led by 15 Commissioners from across the party. "We intentionally designed our review so that our whole movement can feel part of it, because the process of constructing a project that involves all our traditions is as important as what we conclude."[15] The analysis was drawn from the combined insights from over 11,000 survey responses from Labour members members, supporters, and former voters, alongside more than 50 in depth interviews with activists, organisers and party staff, Labour candidates and MEPs across the UK. It was supported by submissions from groups across the movement including Momentum, Progress, Labour Business, English Labour Network, a Labour LGA councillors’ survey, Labour's Community Organising Unit and affiliated Trade Unions including Unite. The review was described in Labour List as being "welcomed by party across factions".[16]
The Election Review concluded that for Labour to win the next election, it would need to win over "hero voters" and the red wall, who in the 2019 general election had voted for the Conservative Party.[2]
In December 2020, O'Rourke filed a series of donation reports that, from 2017 until 2020, had not been filed within 30 days as required by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.[3][4] Labour Together was investigated by the Electoral Commission from January 2021[3] for failing to declare over £800,000 of donations within 30 days,[4] £730,000 of which was not disclosed when McSweeney was director.[3] McSweeney had falsely asserted in a January 2019 meeting in parliament that donations were being declared fully and promptly.[3] The investigation became public in February 2021, when Business Insider revealed that only £165,000 of the £970,492 donated between October 2015 and January 2021 had been declared within the specified period. O'Rourke stated that this "administrative oversight" was "entirely unintentional" and asserted that "we are now fully transparent and compliant with regards to our donations, and are cooperating fully with the Electoral Commission to assist them in their ongoing inquiry."[4] Following this, the Electoral Commission stated that "admin error" was not a reasonable excuse, and fined Labour Together £14,250 in September 2021 after finding it had committed over 20 offences under electoral law, including disclosures with incorrect information and a failure to appoint a "responsible person" for declaring funds.[3]
Continuing its cross party work, in early 2022 Labour Together published Labour's Covenant: A Plan for National Reconstruction, authored by Jonathan Rutherford. The work was the culmination of a project that involved over 100 policy advisers, academics, journalists and think tank experts, along with Labour mayors, councillors and MPs, from across the party, to discuss Labour's political renewal. Ten working groups produced over 50 papers in over 40 webinar discussions.[17][18]
2022–2024: Relaunch as a policy think tank and general election campaign
In 2022, Josh Simons, a former Corbyn policy advisor who had resigned in protest due to accusations of antisemitism in the party, took over as director of the group. He stated in 2023 that "now, Labour Together has relaunched as a political think tank."[1] This was a change in direction compared to its previous purpose as a network aiming to bridge build within the party.[19] Lisa Nandy objected to the relaunch.[20] The group focused on "security" as a central campaign theme,[2] and based Labour Together's strategy on the Conservative think tank Onward.[1] A report from the group on 29 March 2023, one of its first major attempts at profiling the full British electorate, identified the "Stevenage woman" in addition to the "Workington man" as critical to a Labour election victory.[21] In the summer of 2023, Labour Together founder Jon Cruddas left the organisation, claiming that Labour was under the control of a "rightwing, illiberal" faction. He also stated that "there's been a lot of ‘boasting’ on Labour Together's work within the party," and that "many are reinterpreting history for their own purposes."[2][22]
As of October 2023 Labour Together had received over £1.8 million in donations after Starmer became leader, with the three biggest donors being Martin Taylor, Trevor Chinn and Gary Lubner.[1] It kept significant contact with McSweeney, who had since become Labour's campaign director,[1][2] as well as Labour's strategy director Deborah Mattinson, policy chief Stuart Ingham, and Shadow Chancellor of the ExchequerRachel Reeves.[1] In October 2023, Politico noted that "nearly all the MPs credited with building Labour Together since 2017 — Reeves, Wes Streeting, Shabana Mahmood, Steve Reed, Bridget Phillipson, Lucy Powell and Lisa Nandy — now sit in Starmer's top team."[1] That month, it appointed an advisory board which included Helen Thompson, Alan Milburn and pollster Andrew Cooper, and also hired former pollster Chris Curtis for its polling operations. Labour Together was described by Andrew Marr as "as near as Starmer's Labour has to an emotional core."[23] It published policy papers on investment, technology, artificial intelligence, climate, constitutional reform, and geopolitics, which included China.[1]
It was announced outgoing Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, who narrowly lost his seat, was Labour Together's new director. Ashworth has close connections with Starmer's leadership team, having served in Starmer's shadow cabinet until his defeat at the election.[27] By October 2024, Labour Together had given donations totalling £1.5 million to over 100 different Labour MPs, ranging from donations of £5,000 to £137,168.[28] The same month, the group published a report recommending that regional and city mayors be given more power over their budgets and public services.[29] The group pushed Starmer's government to set "long-term targets" to reduce immigration,[30] as well as to "de-risk" supply chains by reducing reliances on China for critical minerals, in December 2024.[31]
The Labour left oriented-Tribune magazine has suggested Labour Together is a "big money operation", highlighting large donors including Trevor Chinn, Martin Taylor, Ian Laming, and William Reeves, to label the think tank an "undemocratic, multimillionaire-funded structure".[32]
In January 2025, The Times reported that the group had made redundancies, with up to 15% of staff leaving since the previous summer. One of these sources stated that Labour Together lacked "much of a purpose or sense of direction anymore", with few appearances from Ashworth and its director of policy Matthew Upton making decisions instead. One Labour Together member said that the group had "moved away from being a think tank that speaks publicly about policy", instead turning to "influencing government policy through private conversations with ministers and special advisers".[33] In March the government discussed plans laid out by the think tank for the restructuring of NHS England and other quangos. These plans were dubbed "project chainsaw", in reference to a stunt by Elon Musk in which he wielded a chainsaw to symbolise government cuts.[34]
Labour Together have faced criticism over their "Farage-flavoured approach" to migration policy, and encouraging the Labour government to "[play] with fire" by leaning "into the anti-migrant policies and rhetoric employed by the populist far-right across Europe" by charity Asylum Matters.[35] The LabourList article went on to say that Labour Together was proposing directions that lead to 'the road to a ruinous breakdown of community cohesion and the house of cards that is the progressive electoral coalition that brought Labour to power in the first place.'[36]
In January 2025 Labour Together was reported to have become "directionless and is making redundancies" by The Times due to the leadership of Jonathan Ashworth.[37] The paper highlighted that the think tank was "losing staff and donors" and was "faltering under the leadership" of Ashworth, with MPs reporting receiving an increasing number of job applications from staff at Labour Together and funders turning their attention to other think tanks aligned with the Starmer leadership.[38]
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