𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour will make a “monumental” mistake if it steers clear of welfare reform after last year’s humiliation, one of the party’s greatest living examples of social mobility has warned. Jonathan Ashworth – whose father was a croupier at Manchester’s Playboy club and whose mother worked as a bunny girl at the same venue – faced childhood challenges far greater than the hard knocks which come with frontline politics.

He cared for his alcoholic dad, ensuring there was food in the fridge and not just wine and lager. It fell on him to make sure there was tea on the table in the evening.

“For a lot of my teenage years, I was dealing with him when he was very drunk,” he admits.

Mr Ashworth, 47, speaks of his father with love but he is acutely aware of the difficulties faced by the children of alcoholics across the nation. He is also worried that just under a million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in work, education or training, and preventing them being abandoned to a life on benefits is a personal priority.

“I fundamentally believe that our system of welfare is holding people back,” he says.

No one can accuse Mr Ashworth of not pursuing his ambitions. He won a place at Durham University, became national secretary of Labour Students and as a special adviser worked closely with Gordon Brown, both when he was Chancellor and Prime Minister.

When asked where his confidence came from, he says: “I think it’s because I had no choice but to grow up really quickly. If you are a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, dealing with a drunk father, you’ve got no choice but to get on with it because no one else is going to get on with it for you.”

Overcoming self-doubt is important, he believes. He points to Shakespeare’s line in Measure for Measure: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

He won election as the MP for Leicester South in the 2011 by-election and shot up through the ranks, serving as Shadow Health Secretary, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and Shadow Paymaster General. In 2024, with Labour all but assured of winning power, it looked as if the “shadow” days were about to end – but one of the biggest upsets of that year’s election took place in his constituency.

He had increased his majority to more than 20,000 in recent contests but that July he faced competition from pro-Gaza Independent Shockat Adam who won by 979 votes. Now outside of Westminster politics, he has joined forces with the Centre of Social Justice – the influential think tank founded by former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith – and he will work on ways to reform welfare and tackle addiction.

Sir Keir Starmer’s last attempt to cut the benefits bill ended in disaster in June. Scores of Labour backbenchers threatened to rebel and the Government – which had hoped to save £5billion a year by 2030 – announced existing claimants of the personal independence payment and the health element of universal credit would be spared cuts.

If a Prime Minister with a giant majority could not make modest savings, what chance is there he can introduce fundamental welfare reform? Mr Ashworth is adamant welfare must not be put in the “too difficult” pile.

“Walking away from this is actually a denial of Labour values,” he says.

He insists that reforming benefits is “not a Tory thing”.

“The last Labour government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had welfare reform at the heart of its agenda and they made the argument that an efficient, productive economy goes hand in hand with social justice,” he argues.

He was unimpressed by how the Government approached the issue.

“The Treasury said, ‘We’ve got to find £5billion worth of savings – oh, let’s just get it from the welfare budget. That’s not the way in which you fundamentally change the system.”

Warning that young people who are out of work in their early 20s are “at risk of a life on the margins,” he says: “There’s something going wrong in the system. You’ve got to look at the benefits people get – and you have got to reform eligibility for benefits – but you’ve also got to look at our failing mental health services.”

Mr Ashworth has run multiple marathons in support of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics and hosts a podcast for the charity. Guests have included Calum Best, the son of legendary footballer George Best.

Explaining why many parents with alcohol problems do not seek help, he says they fear “social services will step in and the children will be taken away”.

He is struck by how people from every strata of society – right up to the aristocracy – have stories to share about alcoholism in their family. He remembers with sadness how political luminaries including Gordon Brown came to his wedding but his dad stayed away.

“I later found out that he thought he couldn’t come to the wedding because he was so worried he would embarrass me and upset me,” he says, adding: “[He] was my dad and I loved him and I would have wanted him to be there.”

He admits he feels “tremendous guilt” when he talks about his dad’s challenges because it can seem as if “you are betraying the memory of your father”.

“It’s difficult, this stuff, but I think it’s important it’s brought to the fore,” he says.

When he arrived as a student at Durham, he remembers, it felt like a “different world”. Many students came from radically wealthier backgrounds and he was “skint”, but an aunt armed him clear advice which stood him in good stead: “So long as you’ve got a clean shirt on and a polished pair of shoes, no one need ever know how much money you have in your pocket.”

“I was never intimidated by it all,” he says.

He puts this down to liking people, whatever their background.

“I’ve never had this sort of chippy inverse snobbery that sometimes affects people on the Labour side… I like talking to people. I like listening to their different stories. It is something I just enjoy because I love the variety of life.”

He has the perspective of both a Labour insider and someone who is no longer tethered to the Commons.

The Prime Minister he argues, should take inspiration from Claudio Ranieri, the former Leicester City manager. He was once derided as the “Tinkerman” for fiddling with squad formations but he then shocked the world when his team won the Premier League in 2016.

Britain is hungry for change and this is not the time for tinkering, Mr Ashworth argues. If Sir Keir can be like the “later on” Ranieri he can “change things around, definitely”.

There is routine speculation Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham could try to return to Westminster with the goal of leading the party. Mr Ashworth has warm words for his comrade, saying: “I think he is an exceptional politician and I think Labour’s bench would be strengthened immeasurably if he was a member of the Labour cabinet or back in Parliament.”

But he adds he does not think Sir Keir will be deposed.

In fact, he states: “I think Labour can turn this around, and I suspect, in a year’s time, if you come back to record me for a follow-up interview, I’ll bet you that Keir Starmer is still the Labour prime minister.”

The next general election is edging closer. Will he stand again?

“Who knows? he says, and this time he references a quote by Tony Benn.

The iconic Left-winger famously said “there is no final victory, as there is no final defeat” – and Mr Ashworth shares a very similar philosophy.

“You just keep battling on and you have to make sure you’re tough enough for the fight. So, we’ll see.”