On 24 September the result of the long Labour leadership contest will be announced. Regardless of who wins, Labour needs to produce a credible range of policies to persuade the British people that we are a party capable of confronting and addressing the massive challenges the UK faces today.

As longstanding members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), we believe it is essential that it works with the wider party, and progressive forces outside the party, to devise a programme for the future, to win the battle of ideas necessary to secure victory for Labour at the next general election.

The PLP is an underused resource in the party. For far too long, policy has been produced from the Labour party leader’s office and the majority of the PLP has been marginalised. At different times, attempts to initiate creative policy thinking within the PLP have either been ignored or, worse, suppressed. This is despite the fact that Labour MPs are those who deal with the immediate impacts of government policy in their constituency surgeries. We are determined that this should change.

For too long the voice of the PLP has been dominated by unrepresentative minorities, either supporting or attacking the party leadership. This was true in the days of New Labour when opposition on the backbenches was commonly characterised by a small group who regularly voted against the leadership. Today we have a small group supporting New Labour who have voiced their opposition to the current leadership from the very beginning, leaving the party’s membership with the impression that the entire PLP has been in permanent revolt against Jeremy Corbyn.

Jeremy Corbyn makes conditional peace offer to hostile Labour MPs Read more

The reality is that the vast majority of the PLP were getting on with their jobs and will do so again whatever the outcome of the leadership contest.

However, it is time for the main body of the PLP to be heard, and to achieve this a group of 60 MPs of the traditional left within parliament have reformed the Tribune group. The group will act as a vehicle for ideas to change our party, our country and all our futures. We invite all who share our vision to contribute.

There is a great deal of knowledge and experience within the PLP which has been underutilised by successive leaders. We intend to enable members of the PLP to help develop areas of policy, applying the experience gained from their varied backgrounds and many years in parliament. Working with others who want to help shape future policy, we intend to initiate debate within the Labour movement which will address the unprecedented political challenges our country now faces and will be available to any future Labour party leader. We know that there are radical, progressive thinkers in business, trades unions, academia and right across society who want to work with us.

The two main parties have slugged it out on a very narrow strip of political ground for too long, and the public has grown cynical over the lack of real choices on offer. Tribune will fill the void and be the catalyst for debate to find real alternatives to the status quo and generate the debate needed to face the challenges of the 2020s and beyond.

Clive Efford is MP for Eltham, and Ian Lucas is MP for Wrexham