Rural Labour MPs Warn No 10: "We Damage The Environment At Our Peril"
“I think they’ve underestimated how passionate people are about the environment,” a member of the Labour Rural Research Group says of the Labour government (Illustration by Tracy Worrall)
8 min read
Could Labour win the fight for the countryside long-term? Sienna Rodgers talks to members of the new Labour Rural Research Group who are hoping to drive ‘rurality’ up the agenda
Labour surprised itself with the wins it made in rural areas at the last general election. Take Hexham, England’s largest constituency by land mass. It was turned red for the first time in its history last year, despite Reform not standing there.
More surprisingly still, the YouGov MRP in May showed Labour losing its majority but holding onto Hexham. Is the old assumption that Labour is the party of urban Britain – and can forget the support of rural voters in times of trouble for the party – no longer true?
That is the case being made by a new group of 26 Labour MPs, the Labour Rural Research Group – LRRG for short, pronounced “lurg” by some.
After an initial report in August setting out first principles and catching the media’s attention, LRRG plans to hard launch at party conference before releasing three further reports over the next 12 months, exploring: rural poverty (to be published before the end of the year); rural growth; and the future of farming and agriculture.
Each will make clear policy recommendations and be “evidence-led”, informed by conversations with stakeholders, polling and focus groups. The House understands that LRRG has brought in Baroness Mattinson to help. The political consultant, who advised Tony Blair in the 90s, acted as chief pollster to Gordon Brown and worked in Keir Starmer’s team in opposition, is now a Labour peer.
As a staunch defender of the leadership, her association with the group is helpful both practically and in terms of optics, for LRRG could be seen by some as the voice of Labour’s rural rebels.
In contrast to the Rural Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) group, chaired by Hexham’s doggedly loyal MP Joe Morris, a number of LRRG members – who come from across the party – have been openly critical of the government’s perceived failures on rural issues, from increased inheritance tax for farming families to controversial planning changes. While Rural PLP has made campaigning its focus, LRRG hopes to act more as a think tank.
“You can’t just design policy from Whitehall and impose it on rural areas across the UK and expect it to work,” warns Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, chair of LRRG and MP for Suffolk Coastal, who won her seat from Tory Thérèse Coffey.
While the Labour Growth Group, a rival caucus, encourages the party to draw stark lines between Nimbys (Not In My Back Yard) and Yimbys (Yes In My Backyard), and Starmer talks of backing “the builders, not the blockers”, LRRG is urging the government to take a more nuanced approach to housing and infrastructure – one that their constituents will not be alienated by.
“You can’t win an argument by shouting people down. You can’t ever win hearts and minds by just saying… ‘we need this, and we’re going to run roughshod over you’,” adds Riddell-Carpenter.
“The future of much of the UK’s national ambition depends on rural areas hosting infrastructure. That’s not just housebuilding – that’s energy infrastructure, transport routes. Basically anything that’s an NSIP [Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project] in the country is going to be delivered through or in a rural area.”
“Shouting people down and calling them Nimbys isn’t constructive”
Two new underground cables are making landfall in her seat, with a route via RSPB Minsmere. She argues the National Grid has drawn a “straight line” through this nature reserve “without any real critical thought”.
“We have to be able to say that government is ambitious for nature and net-zero, and it’s not one without the other,” she stresses. “Shouting people down and calling them Nimbys isn’t constructive.”
Terry Jermy, the MP for South West Norfolk who famously unseated Liz Truss, is another LRRG member hoping to put ‘rurality’ firmly on the agenda. Does he think nature has been forgotten amid the government’s emphasis on net-zero?
“I think they’ve underestimated how passionate people are about the environment,” he tells The House. “Where I’m from, in South West Norfolk, a third of my casework is environment-, animal welfare-, climate change-related.
“Whether that’s badgers or caged hens or bees, people really value their wildlife and natural environment, and I think the government’s underestimating the rhetoric they’re using and the impact that’s having.
“People I speak to really want rural affordable housing – it’s a big issue. I don’t understand why we can’t have both. We can have more housing and do it in a way that protects the environment.”
Jermy was “very pleased” when changes to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill were made last summer to address the concerns of environmental groups.
“The key statistic for me is the number of homes that already have planning permission that aren’t being built, and it’s 1.4 million across the country,” he says. “We could end up in a situation where homes are built that are more environmentally destructive before those homes that have already got permission are built. And that seems to be a very odd position to be in.
“In Norfolk, tourism is worth more to our economy than in Cornwall. An awful lot of that tourism is environmental tourism. They come here for the coast. They come here for the Norfolk Broads. We damage the environment at our peril, because there will be a knock-on impact on the economy if we don’t take the environment seriously,” Jermy adds.
There is a perception that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has not been treated well by this government and that farmers in particular have had a raw deal so far. Is that a view he hears expressed?
“It’s definitely reflected amongst constituents,” replies Jermy, stressing that “successive governments have treated farming in rural communities quite poorly”.
One key moment came when the government suddenly closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme – the largest of the environmental land management schemes – without warning, despite having promised to give at least several weeks of notice.
“If the money ran out, the money ran out, but we should have been clearer on when it was ending, why it was ending, and when it would be coming back,” Jermy says.
“Our approach to environmental farming was completely overshadowed by the decision making around SFI. Actually, we are really committed as a government to environmental measures and farming, in a way that I’ve not felt from previous governments. But that messaging hasn’t been clear.”
“I hope we’re not seen as being awkward. I’m really proud to be a Labour MP from a rural area”
LRRG member Steve Witherden, a Welsh MP on Labour’s left, is also frustrated by the Yimby/Nimby debate. As the MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, the “biggest Labour-held seat in all of Wales, by a long way”, he points out that there is not a single district hospital in his rural constituency.
“I don’t think there would be as much opposition [to development] if infrastructure growth kept pace with population growth and housing growth in rural areas,” he says.
Asked about Defra’s record, Witherden describes it as a “mixed bag”. While he has called for the agricultural property relief policy – the ‘family farm tax’, as the Tories call it – to be overhauled, for example, he can also list positives: helping to ensure UK-produced food is served in hospitals, prisons and schools “really resonated in rural communities”, he says.
Crucially, Witherden wants the leadership to appreciate the electoral value in LRRG seats, saying: “We saw a massive growth in the Labour vote last year in rural areas. If you look at the 100 to 170 rural or semi-rural constituencies Labour won, that was where the swing was.”
The ‘red wall’ has long been seen as a natural home for Labour in a way rural areas are not.
“I’ve never understood that,” says Jermy. Plus, he reports, rural communities have changed, especially post-Covid.
“When I get on at King’s Cross to come home, my constituents are in the carriage with me. They’re coming back to South West Norfolk in a way that hasn’t happened in the past… Demographics have changed in a lot of rural seats.”
The man who beat Truss continues: “My seat, obviously, is not typical of the others. There were other factors at play in my constituency! But the rural vote has always been very good for Labour – it’s been building over time, and we had this breakthrough last year. There’s no reason to think that that can’t continue into future elections.
“There is no love for the Conservative Party in my seat,” Riddell-Carpenter says of her Suffolk Coast constituency. “There is no desire for a Conservative government amongst what would be traditional Conservative voters. But how that plays out in the next three, four years is to be determined.
“I think the next general election is going to be fought over and on the idea of what the countryside means to Britain,” she declares.
The LRRG hopes the leadership wakes up to the importance of their constituencies – and to be in prime position when that happens.
As Jermy puts it: “I hope we’re not seen as being awkward. I’m really proud to be a Labour MP from a rural area.”
