‘Labour is as much my party, as it is the people who control it’: An interview with Mainstream’s National Coordinator Luke Hurst

Since coming to power in July 2024, Labour has seen a sharp decline in public support and has been critically haemorrhaging members. While party leadership has downplayed these concerns, others within Labour have become increasingly vocal in their criticism. In the summer of 2025, a new network within the party, Mainstream, was formed. Positioning itself as “the home for Labour’s radical realists”, it aims to push the government from within the party to refine its policy programme and foster a more pluralistic space.

As National Coordinator, Luke Hurst has played a key role in shaping the organisation and building support from across the party, including recognisable Labour names like Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, former party leader, Neil Kinnock, as well as the former Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, who have a speech at Mainstream’s recent Spring Rally. I spoke with Luke Hurst about why young people are drifting away from Labour, what the government needs to do on key student-related issues, and how the Labour Party must change.

While acknowledging that Labour has done some “really good things since 2024”, he made clear that the party had “been tarnished with a bunch of missteps, some missed opportunities and increasingly some scandals”

Mainstream’s viewpoints and foundation

We first discussed what exactly Mainstream is, what it stands for, and why it was formed. Hurst first began by describing Mainstream as “an ideas and organising network within the UK Labour Party”. The group, he explained, is “working around key economic, social, democratic, and environmental issues that [it] thinks should be part of Labour’s programme, strategy, and broader culture”.

While acknowledging that Labour has done some “really good things since 2024”, he made clear that the party had “been tarnished with a bunch of missteps, some missed opportunities and increasingly some scandals”. With this in mind, Hurst warned that if something doesn’t change, Labour risks losing the general election and “the opportunity to transform the country”.

Referencing the founding statement signed by a group of MPs, academics, activists, and members of the Labour Party, Hurst noted that “our main diagnosis is that Labour is in the situation it is in now because it has become narrow, decision making is centralised, and there’s quite a robust top-down culture of doing and deciding in the party”. He pointed to the threat of parties like Reform to express the urgency for change, describing them as “an extraordinary electoral threat”.

It is with this that he gave insight into a central purpose of Mainstream: to encourage Labour “to draw upon all of its movement”. Going into more detail, he highlighted that this means “listening to members, engaging with the Parliamentary Labour Party more thoughtfully, engaging with the trade unions, socialist societies, and communities beyond the party as well […] so that we can develop a better approach for 2029”.

Exploring the seismic issue of the cost-of-living crisis, Hurst referenced a growing sentiment amongst young people that “the cost of living crisis will never end”

Why are so many young people moving away from Labour?

I posed this question to Luke Hurst in the context of what has been seen at Warwick in the last 12 months, particularly with the formation of Warwick Left Society. When answering, Hurst described that “people resonated with that message of the 2024 general election ‘change’, but we’ve not delivered enough of it […] or as deeply as people expected it”.

Exploring the seismic issue of the cost-of-living crisis, Hurst referenced a growing sentiment amongst young people that “the cost of living crisis will never end”. “If politics gets to that point”, he continued, “then something has clearly gone wrong, and that’s where we should be looking around for the boldest, most decisive, transformative solutions”. Describing more specifically why young people have turned from Labour to other parties, Hurst said: “I think people have lost faith in Labour’s ability to do that because they think we’ve been more cautious than courageous. And that’s probably where the attraction to the Greens comes from”.

Interestingly, Hurst also expressed that this is also “why voters of a different political persuasion are drawn to Reform as well. Reform has different solutions and diagnoses than parties of the left”, going on to diagnose a central issue that Reform voters see Labour as the politics of ‘business as usual’.

We have candidates standing for the NEC and the NPF this year”, he noted, going on to explain Mainstream is “organising in local government as well with councillors and mayors, and we’re organising in the PLP with MPs and peers”

Mainstream’s influence over the government and the party

Mainstream over the last year has become increasingly well-known, largely due to some of the recognisable Labour names attached to it. Its founding statement saw signatories like Andy Burnham (the Greater Manchester Mayor), as well as MPs like Dawn Butler and Clive Lewis. The former Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock, has also given his support to the organisation.

It is with this that I asked Luke Hurst how much influence the network currently has and how much change the organisation can actually make. Referencing the central diagnosis he made previously that “decision making is top-down and centralised”, he added that “opportunities for influencing the government right now are scarce because much of the government is not open to being influenced”.  Hurst went on to give the prominent issue of welfare reform as an example, highlighting that “sections of the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) had been warning for months that there were problems with the welfare reforms, and then they weren’t listened to”.

However, while noting that “[their] ability to influence the government is – like everybody else’s – not tremendous”, the National Coordinator made clear that they are “not just sitting on the sidelines suggesting what the government should do, but we’re actively organising for things.” Hurst said: “We have candidates standing for the NEC and the NPF this year”, and then explained that Mainstream is “organising in local government as well with councillors and mayors, and we’re organising in the PLP with MPs and peers”.

With the Chancellor and other ministers evidently changing their tone on this issue in recent weeks, it is clear that many Labour members want the government to pay more attention to this issue

Student loans

Our conversation then turned to one of the biggest issues currently impacting students and one that has received much attention on social media, in mainstream media, and in politics: the fairness of England’s student loan system. I asked Luke Hurst if Mainstream has a position on this issue. While saying “we haven’t taken an organisational position on this yet”, Hurst expressed how he was “sympathetic to this because I have tens of thousands of pounds of student debt from doing my undergraduate degree and then my Master’s”.

Recognising that things need to change, Hurst said, “Labour needs to be able to speak to different parts of its coalition, give them material changes on issues like this that will improve the quality of people’s lives. But also in the process, demonstrate that they’re listening.” With the Chancellor and other ministers evidently changing their tone on this issue in recent weeks, it is clear that many Labour members want the government to pay more attention to this issue. “Labour has an opportunity”, said Hurst, “to show that it’s listening to voters, […] to graduates and students who are feeling the pain of this issue. And I think this is where Labour should be broad, open and led by the people that it’s trying to represent”.

‘Fighting from the inside’

When I first spoke with Luke Hurst a few months ago, he made a noticeable point that while others left the party, he made a decision to stay and ‘fight from the inside’. I wanted to understand why he chose this perspective and understand how it may be similar to others despondent with the Labour Party. “I’m a democratic socialist”, he said, “Labour is the natural home for me, and I don’t think anywhere else will ever be the home for democratic socialism in UK politics, not in my lifetime at least.” Hurst then turned to the achievements of Labour and the wider Labour movement in the past hundred years, saying, “I’m just not ready to give up on that”.

Describing this ‘fighting from the inside’ sentiment, Hurst noted that “every time I feel quite despondent about the Labour Party”, he reminds himself that “this is as much [his] party as it is the people who control it”. He continued by saying “I’ve been a member for as long as some of those people have been a member” and that “Labour remains the vehicle that has delivered huge change for working people in this country and it will be that vehicle again in the future”.

As a final point to those who may be feeling let down by the current state of the Labour Party, Hurst ended by saying “if Labour can be the party of, in 10 years give or take, Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn, and now Keir Starmer […] then Labour can change again”. However, he warned that “superficial changes, just winning on certain areas of policy, isn’t going to be enough. We have to deal with the root and branch reform of the party”. Offering an optimistic message, he said: “If we draw on everybody’s strength, then we can develop a programme that’s comprehensive, broad-based, and can win the support of various different communities across the country”.

Getting involved in Mainstream

I ended by giving Luke Hurst an opportunity to tell those who might be interested in what Mainstream is and how to get involved in the organisation. “Become a member”, Hurst said, “and then be involved in everything that we do”, going on to say that their “two main tracks of work are organising and then ideas and policy generation”.

In terms of organising, he noted, “we have grassroots organising structures, CLP organisers network, local groups networks, and we try and do things in the way that we think Labour should do things”. At the heart of this, Hurst hinted, was creating a “space for our members to voice and organise and set the agenda that they want to follow”.

Ending on a final stark point, Hurst explained the importance of young people getting involved: “I think we’ve broadly failed to cultivate the next generation of organisers, leaders, and politicians”. Expanding on this, Hurst mentioned, “people like students at Warwick are the next generation of people. We want to nurture that talent, provide people with the ideas, the resources, the connections, the networks, and to go on and do brilliant things for our politics, in Labour, and in civil society and the labour movement beyond.”

“Be part of it for that reason as well: it’s not just about changing the Labour Party, but about doing what you want to do and playing your part in the fight,” Hurst concluded.

With many thanks to Luke Hurst for his time. More information about Mainstream Labour can be found here. 

Image: Courtesy of Luke Hurst