Jon Cruddas: ‘labour Has To Rediscover Its Moral Purpose’

The Labour MP and party historian on why he worries for Keir Starmer, the decline of social democracy, and his love of Seamus Heaney

Jon Cruddas has been the MP for Dagenham since 2001, and for the Dagenham and Rainham constituency since 2010. During the course of a 35-year career in the Labour party, he has become one of its most respected intellectual figures, standing for the deputy leadership in 2006 and chairing the party’s policy review under Ed Miliband. His new book, A Century of Labour, is a sweeping historical survey of the party’s ideas and personalities since its formation. Cruddas lives in London with his wife, Anna. He will be standing down as an MP at the next election.

Your new book is about Labour’s history, but also speaks directly to the present moment. Your criticisms in it of Sir Keir Starmer’s “elusiveness” as a leader made the front page of the Observer. How worried are you about Labour’s direction of travel under his leadership?
Keir Starmer deserves great credit. He inherited a party 20 points behind which is now 15 ahead. He could become only the fourth Labour leader to win a general election. I do worry for him, though. Having entered politics late he remains curiously rootless in terms of Labour’s history, its factions, and intellectual traditions. This has an upside. He is not trapped by history and is agile.