Progress (organisation)

Progress is a political organisation associated with the British Labour Party, founded in 1996¹ to support the New Labour leadership of Tony Blair. It is seen as being on the right of the party. Progress merged with Policy Network in May 2021 to form Progressive Britain. The organisation rebranded back to Progress in celebration of their thirtieth birthday in January 2026. Progress publishes polling and research on internal Labour politics, government policy and legislation, as well as organising conferences and other events.

Progress is a political organisation associated with the British Labour Party, founded in 1996 to support the New Labour leadership of Tony Blair. It is seen as being on the right of the party. Progress merged with Policy Network in May 2021 to form Progressive Britain. The organisation rebranded back to Progress in celebration of their thirtieth birthday in January 2026. Progress publishes polling and research on internal Labour politics, government policy and legislation, as well as organising conferences and other events.

Links with Labour First

Historically, Progress had little connection with Labour First, an older Labour party factional organisation on the right of the Labour party. The rise of Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum in the Labour Party saw Progress and Labour First, while remaining distinct organisations with different traditions, carry out more joint activities, including joint endorsement of candidates in internal party elections. During the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, Labour First formed a joint venture with Progress called Reclaiming Labour, holding meetings around the country analysing why Labour lost heavily in the 2019¹ general election. In April 2020, immediately on the election of Keir Starmer as party leader, Labour First and Progress launched jointly a new umbrella organisation called Labour to Win, with goals including 'to bring about fundamental change in the party's culture and organisation'. Labour to Win endorsed candidates in the 2020 Labour National Executive Committee elections, however owing to the newly adopted single transferable vote nature of the elections, and in the spirit of electing a pluralistic NEC, the organisation chose only to endorse six of its own candidates and also to endorse three candidates politically more to the left than Labour To Win but who had a commitment to broad church Labour politics. In the 2024 election, Labour to Win backed 194 of the winning MP campaigns.

Criticism

In 2012, Progress was at the centre of the debate over the direction of the Labour Party under Ed Miliband, after a widely circulated anonymous report called for Labour's national executive to "determine the organisational nature of Progress, and whether or not this form of organisation is acceptable inside the Labour Party." Criticism of Progress had concentrated on the generous funding that Progress had secured from external donors, and on its positioning, regarded as being on the right of the Labour Party. Following circulation of the report, the GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny led calls at the 2012 Labour conference for Progress to be "effectively… (outlawed)…as part of the Labour Party." In response, a Labour Party statement said, "We are a party that is reaching out to people, gaining new supporters and offering real change for the country in these tough times. The Labour Party is a broad church and we are not in the business of excluding people." Labour leader Ed Miliband was also clearly in support, telling The Independent that "I believe in an open and inclusive party, reaching out to people, not for pushing people away. That certainly does not mean excluding or proscribing organisations like Progress which contribute to the debate." In 2013, Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the Union, claimed Progress was manipulating the selection procedures for Labour parliamentary candidates to get its candidates selected. Progress responded: "Progress helps to train and mentor candidates going for selection, to whom we do not give money. The details are open, plainly explained on our website and approved by a strategy board elected by our members."

Personnel of Progress to 2020

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