Editing Soft left (section)

==Definition==
In the context of the Labour Party, the term "soft left" was coined in [[1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election|1981]], when [[Neil Kinnock]] refused to support [[Tony Benn]] for the [[Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|deputy leadership of the Labour Party]] {{See below|content=[[#History|History]]}}. It described a faction of the party which disagreed with the [[conservative]] tendencies of the Labour right and the radical tendencies of the "Bennite" left, also known as the [[hard left]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Fielding |first=Steven |date=22 January 2020 |title=Keir Starmer is Labour's 'continuity Miliband' contender |work=[[The Spectator]] |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-is-labour-s-continuity-miliband-contender/ |access-date=20 May 2023}}</ref> In parliament, it was represented by the [[Tribune Group of MPs]] and consequently came to be known as the Tribunite left as well.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hosken |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=weQOAQAAMAAJ |title=Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone |publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing|Arcadia]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-905147-72-4 |page=9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Paterson |first1=William E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuWHAAAAMAAJ |title=The Future of Social Democracy: Problems and Prospects of Social Democratic Parties in Western Europe |last2=Thomas |first2=Alastair H. |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-19-876168-6 |page=84 |language=en}}</ref> The soft left also aligned itself with the [[Labour Co-ordinating Committee]] (LCC).<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Ross |date=2001 |title=The Labour Party and the Labour Left: Party Transformation and the Decline of Factionalism 1979–97 |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6e09469d-854f-420c-8167-c755b1b919f1/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=602322115.pdf |access-date=31 May 2023 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=40–41}}</ref>

The soft left was initially considered another faction in the Labour left along with the Bennite left, though unlike the Bennite left, it was willing to compromise on some issues to keep the party united and electable.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 1983 |title=The British Labor Party: Caught Between Ideology and Reality |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84S00555R000200060004-2.pdf |publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |page=11 |language=en-US}}</ref> Neil Kinnock, a leader of the soft left, became leader of the Labour Party in [[1983 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|1983]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Ben |last2=Hickson |first2=Kevin |date=16 June 2022 |title=Keir Starmer: what Labour leader could learn from Neil Kinnock to capitalise on Boris Johnson's woes |work=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |url=https://theconversation.com/keir-starmer-what-labour-leader-could-learn-from-neil-kinnock-to-capitalise-on-boris-johnsons-woes-184981 |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> When he moved rightwards in this role, the soft left followed him.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Childs |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA213 |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture |last2=Storry |first2=Michael |date=13 May 2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-75555-4 |page=213 |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> As alliances were made between the soft left and the party leadership, the ideological distinctiveness of the LCC and the Tribune Group declined.<ref name=":2" /> The soft left formed an alliance with the Labour right to oppose the Bennite left and support Kinnock's leadership.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hassan |first1=Gerry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C9eVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT89 |title=The People's Flag and the Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party |last2=Shaw |first2=Eric |date=7 May 2019 |publisher=[[Biteback Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-78590-387-8 |page=89 |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilsford |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8iJNlWcdIUC&pg=PA241 |title=Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary |date=1995 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-28623-0 |page=241 |language=en |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> During his leadership, the soft left also formed a new moderniser faction with members of the Labour right against the party's traditionalist faction.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Jon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cR6yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Heroes Or Villains?: The Blair Government Reconsidered |last2=Rentoul |first2=John |date=2019 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-960885-0 |page=18 |language=en |author-link2=John Rentoul |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> The soft left was no longer an identifiable faction on the Labour left by the time of the [[1992 general election (UK)|1992 general election]],<ref name=":2" /> with the Tribune Group disbanding by the time [[Tony Blair]] became Labour leader in [[1994 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|1994]].<ref name=":1" /> The process whereby the soft left drifted away from the Labour left and pitched itself against the Bennite left is known as the "realignment of the left".<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 1985 |title=Left or rightward shift? |page=47 |work=New Socialist |publisher=[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] |issue=23–33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivYDAQAAIAAJ |access-date=25 July 2023}}</ref>

In modern politics, the soft left refers to a faction in the Labour Party which opposed the [[New Labour]] project but has avoided the politics of the modern Labour left, also known as the hard left.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Self |first=Josh |date=4 January 2023 |title=A quiet psychodrama: The story of how Keir Starmer transformed Labour in 1000 days |work=[[Politics.co.uk]] |url=https://www.politics.co.uk/5-minute-read/2023/01/04/a-quiet-psychodrama-the-story-of-how-keir-starmer-transformed-labour-in-1000-days/ |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> Ideologically, it is described as [[centre-left]]<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Payne |first1=Sebastian |last2=Pickard |first2=Jim |last3=Kao |first3=Joanna S |last4=Nevitt |first4=Caroline |date=3 September 2019 |title=Jeremy Corbyn's inner circles |work=[[Financial Times]] |url=https://ig.ft.com/jeremy-corbyn-labour-inner-circles/ |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> and is typically thought to occupy the space in the party between the Labour left and the Labour right.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lapsley |first=Steve |date=9 May 2020 |title=In defence of 'soft left' |url=https://openlabour.org/in-defence-of-soft-left/ |access-date=31 May 2023 |website=[[Open Labour]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shaw |first=Eric |date=April 2020 |title=British Labour's Safe Pair of Hands |work=Inroads – The Canadian Journal of Opinion |issue=47 |url=https://inroadsjournal.ca/british-labours-safe-pair-of-hands/ |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref><ref name="Thompson Pitts Ingold pp. 32–39" /> While the Labour left is more supportive of socialism, the soft left is more supportive of [[social democracy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Manwaring |first1=Rob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UlI8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |title=Why the Left Loses: The Decline of the Centre-Left in Comparative Perspective |last2=Kennedy |first2=Paul |date=2018 |publisher=[[Policy Press]] |isbn=978-1-4473-3266-4 |page=29 |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> It believes in compromising more traditional socialist policies to make Labour more electable.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Craddock |first=Isabella |date=23 July 2020 |title=The Commons: The Rise of Keir Starmer |url=https://www.moderntreatise.com/current-affairs/2020/7/17/the-commons-the-rise-of-keir-starmer |access-date=31 May 2023 |website=Modern Treatise}}</ref> It is one of the four main factions in the modern Labour Party.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=Luke John |date=March 2020 |title=The role of youth and student wings in shaping Social Democratic Parliamentarians in Germany and Great Britain. |url=https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/42466/1/DAVIES_LUKE_JOHN_050461228_2020.pdf |access-date=31 May 2023 |publisher=[[Aston University]] |pages=116, 173}}</ref>

The term "soft left" has been said to carry negative connotations which can suggest a less enthusiastic approach to socialism. It has been argued that the term "inside left" should be used instead.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crines |first=Andrew Scott |date=12 July 2011 |title=Michael Foot and the Labour Leadership |page=161 |work=[[Cambridge Scholars Publishing]] |isbn=9781443832397 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MhQrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> The left-leaning magazines ''[[New Statesman]]'' and ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'' have used the term as well.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Reeves |first=Richard |date=14 July 2003 |title=The public intellectual |volume=132 |page=23 |work=[[New Statesman]] |issue=4645–4648 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boMxAQAAIAAJ |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=18 May 2007 |title=Energy: principled |volume=71 |page=17 |work=[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNMnAQAAIAAJ |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> However, unlike the term "hard left", which can be considered [[pejorative]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stone |first=Jon |date=5 January 2016 |title=Labour's left wing 'can't tolerate dissent', Labour MP Chris Leslie claims |work=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-s-left-wing-can-t-tolerate-dissent-labour-mp-chris-leslie-claims-a6797481.html |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> "soft left" members have used the term as a self-descriptor to distance themselves from the "hard left".<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Jeremy |date=March 2016 |title=Corbynism and Its Futures |url=https://nearfuturesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Gilbert_05-1.pdf |journal=Near Futures Online: Europe at a Crossroads |volume=1 |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> Soft left MP [[Lisa Nandy]] advocates a "better name" for the faction; she has said the term "sounds a bit like you've sort of collapsed into a jellyfish".<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Sodha |first1=Sonia |last2=Helm |first2=Toby |date=29 February 2020 |title=Lisa Nandy: 'If Labour got things broadly right, how did we lose so badly?' |work=[[The Observer]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/29/lisa-nandy-if-labour-got-things-right-how-did-we-lose-so-badly-interview |access-date=31 May 2023}}</ref> [[Open Labour]], the main organisation representing the soft left,<ref name="Thompson Pitts Ingold pp. 32–39" /> has preferred to use the term "open left".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rodgers |first=Sienna |date=26 September 2022 |title=Labour Party Jargon Buster: Use our glossary of terms at Conference '22 |url=https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/labour-party-jargon-buster |access-date=22 January 2023 |website=[[PoliticsHome]]}}</ref>