Never in my adult life, has a Labour Party Leadership Election caused so much debate, enthusiasm and, dare I say it, excitement.
Why is this? Is it because of Andy Burnham is “rebuilding an emotional connection with Labour Party supporters”? Is because Yvette Cooper is “the candidate with the strength, experience and progressive ideas to lead our party and win in the country”? Or is it the prospect of Liz Kendall bringing the ghost of Blairism back from the dead?
I am being facetious of course.
There are two reasons why so much noise is being made:
1) It is the first leadership election where the membership (and this time a load of new £3 supporters) decide on a one-person-one-vote basis. The name for this type of process is ‘democracy’.
2) Jeremy Corbyn, a genuinely left-wing candidate, has got onto the ballot paper. The hierarchy of the party absolutely hate this fact and are already turning nasty.
I have spoken to people who consider themselves to be reasonably progressive, a little bit left-wing, but certainly moderate. Some of them have been quite angry as they feel that it would be irresponsible and immature to select Corbyn, as he “has no chance of winning” in a general election. There are three things to say in response…
Firstly, no one expected Corbyn to get the nominations needed to be on the ballot. But he did due to pressure from thousands of Labour Party members. Then, no one expected him to come anywhere but a firm last. Now it is looking more and more likely he will win. Doesn’t that cast some doubt on the predictive abilities of the naysayers?
People say it with such conviction “he could never win”, but how many of these people predicted the SNP landslide? What evidence do they have to support their views? We know that many of his policy positions are either majority views (in the case of rail nationalisation) or have decent, widespread support (like scrapping Trident). So, where IS the centre-ground these days? Does it really only consist of that tiny strip between the Miliband’s Labour and Cameron’s Tories? Is the centre-ground even a concept worth debating, let alone pandering to?
It is not a forgone conclusion that Corbyn will win the leadership race, but if he does, it will be via the most democratic selection process the Labour Party has ever undertaken and that is significant. Whatever the outcome, it will be the most representative of ordinary members’ views, the most legitimate and they will have the strongest mandate to direct the party that any Labour leader has had.
In addition, people of all political hues are desperately crying out for some sincerity in politics. Jeremy Corbyn’s major USP is that he has sincerity in spades, a point even his detractors readily acknowledge. Now that Nigel Farage has somewhat blown his cover, by retracting his promised resignation, I can even see UKIP voters (a depressingly high number of which are ex-Labour supporters) supporting him.
Secondly, the other candidates are really, really dull and represent more of the same old same old. They are at least as likely to lose the next election as Corbyn, if not significantly more so. Even if election victory in 2020 was all that mattered, Corbyn would still have my vote.
Lastly, a precondition to any progress being made is that the narrative has to shift. There needs to be high profile people calling out the Tory’s propaganda for the foul, hateful, mean-spirited and empirically flawed dogma that it is. Osborne, in particular, seems adept at wrong footing New Labour, but how will respond when challenged from a surefooted, principled position?
The Labour party has been a feeble opposition. Whilst I readily admit that a Labour victory in May would have been miles better than what we’ve got, the solutions they offer have been completely anaemic. They have seemed content to offer only the smallest imaginable steps in the right direction, and then were bewildered when the SNP trounced them in Scotland on a full-blooded anti-Tory ticket. Labour can never out-Tory the Tories, so it should stop trying. If they don’t, who will hold the government to account for the next 5 years?
If you do not like Jeremy Corbyn because you do not agree with what he is saying, by all means, vote for another candidate. If, however, you agree with his main positions, but think that he represents a tactical mistake for Labour, please take a leap of faith. Put your trust in your fellow countrymen (and countrywomen) and vote for what you actually believe in.
(N.B. As always, the views expressed in this article does not necessarily reflect the views of Leeds for Change or all it’s members.)