Against the backdrop of a financial crisis, rising unemployment and a growing deficit, the political cycle in Britain has swung back towards the Tories after thirteen years with a Labour Government. In the city of Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, the Labour candidate, lost to the Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert in May 2010. Zeichner has since then been actively organising Ed Miliband’s successful bid for the Labour Party leadership. The annual Labour Party Conference, which was held this week in Manchester, provided an opportune time to have a conversation with Zeichner about current issues in British politics.

The first issue at hand was to ask why he thought voters had lost confidence in Labour during the last election. Zeichner replied that although Labour won in Scotland, Wales, the North of England and London, a "gradual process" since 1997 had meant that Labour "had lost touch with people in places like Cambridge". Though he noted that "all governments inevitably upset various groups of people at one point or another", he thought that people in Cambridge felt that the Government "had become too authoritarian".

Zeichner remained optimistic about Labour’s ability to win back voters in Cambridge, citing its "young demographic", "thoughtful electorate" and the more fluid nature of political identity in Britain. He stated that the decision of the Liberal Democrats to agree to a coalition government would have "seriously affronted" the "intelligentsia", because "I don’t think they thought they were voting to put Cameron Osbourne at number 10". Provided that Labour makes a coherent and progressive case, Zeichner felt they would be able to win people’s trust back, and added that "if there is to be another Labour government we have to win seats like Cambridge" because of its "electoral mass".

The interview shifted to the policies of the current Government, whose members he described as "extremists", stating that the agenda of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne, was to "shrink the state" whilst using the "deficit issue as cover" and that there was no evidence to support the claim that the deficit had to be reduced within four years. The idea that the private sector would move in to "pick up the slack left by reducing public spending" was completely dismissed, and the structural reform of the NHS deemed a "foolish, unnecessary and expensive decision". Other noted policy failures, according to Zeichner, included university cutbacks and the immigration cap which threaten Britain’s future global competitiveness, as well as the "nonsensical idea that Britain can forge an independent path on its own without the European Union".

However, despite the predictable displeasure with the Coalition’s current policies, Zeichner commended Justice Secretary Ken Clarke’s plans for prison reform, which he agreed would mean fewer people in prison.

Moving on to his support of Ed Miliband as leader of the Labour Party he described him as less "aloof" than his older brother David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary. "I just felt that over time he would probably make a more popular leader, and probably a better leader, for being able to listen". "I think that leadership is about leading people forward, you’ve got to be positive and have a view about a better world", in stark contrast to Cameron’s "broken Britain" rhetoric and his "politics of despair".

Leadership has also been the main subject at the Annual Party Conference. Despite the "morbid fascination with the two brothers", and the potential divisiveness such a contest entails, Zeichner felt that "this is probably the least decisive one I can remember in my years in the Labour Party". David Miliband’s recent decision not to pursue a job in the shadow cabinet may also have allayed fears of potential conflict. However, the mood at the conference was predictably mixed, having just suffered a big election defeat, with discernable anger at the "duplicity of the Coalition".

As future leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband’s policy agenda advocates increasing taxation on banks and reducing income wealth inequality. "We want to live in a country where people live a bit more closely, and Ed made the point that the happiest countries are the ones where the gap between rich and poor is less than in our country".

Queried about the importance of trade unions to Ed Miliband’s success, a topic which has received considerable nervous press from Conservative newspapers, Zeichner noted: "I know that a lot of people don’t quite understand the membership basis of the Labour Party and the relationship with the trade unions, but the other two parties have no linkages whatsoever with the vast amount of what one would, with inverted commas call, ordinary people in this country".

Hence Zeichner expected the strongest response to the comprehensive spending review in October to focus on the Lib Dems and the rise in Value Added Tax which the fiscal studies have shown to be a regressive tax which hits the poorest people hardest. "Are they really going to go along with that? Is that really what the Lib Dems believe in? Is that really what Julian Huppert was standing on in the election in Cambridge?"

His personal reflection was that "modern politics moves much more quickly these days. I make no predictions, but the modern world moves very fast and I don’t think it will take too much to fragment the coalition, and suddenly we could find ourselves facing another election. So my challenge to Julian Huppert is: I’m ready anytime!"

Personally Zeichner has always been closely connected to the city and its University, with a degree in History from King’s College, where "the intellectual framework that I followed in later years was formed", he said. He described the political climate at the University back then as "dreadful" with Peterhouse and its "obnoxious right-wing credo" led by Maurice Cowling, a British historian and Fellow of Peterhouse and an active member of the Conservative party.

As a graduate in 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher rose to power, Zeichner stated that it was a "real shock to my generation" to see a government that was "indifferent to the effects of unemployment," rise steadily throughout the decade. Noting the similarities in the situation Britain faces today, he stated that "I don’t think today’s generation understand what effect it would have to put in power a government that thought unemployment was a price worth paying."