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| Labour’s moderates have a duty to serve in the shadow cabinet | Labour’s moderates have a duty to serve in the shadow cabinet |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Everybody who knows Jeremy Corbyn insists he is an admirable human being – the sort of man who, were you to join him on a long train journey, would insist on sharing his sandwiches. His carefully cultivated image clearly appeals to people who have grown weary of conventional politics and believe that wearing an open-neck shirt is proof positive of integrity and idealism. One other biographical fact is worth a mention. He is incapable of leading the Labour party to victory at the next general election. | Everybody who knows Jeremy Corbyn insists he is an admirable human being – the sort of man who, were you to join him on a long train journey, would insist on sharing his sandwiches. His carefully cultivated image clearly appeals to people who have grown weary of conventional politics and believe that wearing an open-neck shirt is proof positive of integrity and idealism. One other biographical fact is worth a mention. He is incapable of leading the Labour party to victory at the next general election. |
| Related: ‘Britain can’t cut its way to prosperity. We have to build it’ | Jeremy Corbyn | |
| Two days after the election of a new leader there is, inevitably, much talk of healing wounds, rallying round and pulling together. The expression of inconvenient truths will be confused with disloyalty. But the real betrayal is sacrificing the interests of families that need a Labour government on the altar of half-thought-out ideas. | Two days after the election of a new leader there is, inevitably, much talk of healing wounds, rallying round and pulling together. The expression of inconvenient truths will be confused with disloyalty. But the real betrayal is sacrificing the interests of families that need a Labour government on the altar of half-thought-out ideas. |
| Listening to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership acceptance speech was like travelling 40 years back in time. It was as if Tony Benn had been reincarnated. Generalities about ending poverty and improving opportunities, with which no one of good will could disagree, followed hard on each other’s heels. There was windy talk of making the party more accountable. But that was directed at the army of social media enthusiasts who were his new recruits to the party. Corbyn said nothing that even acknowledged that half the Labour party is deeply opposed to his policies. | Listening to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership acceptance speech was like travelling 40 years back in time. It was as if Tony Benn had been reincarnated. Generalities about ending poverty and improving opportunities, with which no one of good will could disagree, followed hard on each other’s heels. There was windy talk of making the party more accountable. But that was directed at the army of social media enthusiasts who were his new recruits to the party. Corbyn said nothing that even acknowledged that half the Labour party is deeply opposed to his policies. |
| When he was elected leader in 1980, Michael Foot – also doomed to lead the party to defeat – offered me the job as shadow home secretary with the promise not to do anything that made me and my friends “shove off”. He meant that – in order to preserve some sort of unity – he would not insist on the opposition voting in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament. Jeremy Corbyn shows no such sign of grace. | When he was elected leader in 1980, Michael Foot – also doomed to lead the party to defeat – offered me the job as shadow home secretary with the promise not to do anything that made me and my friends “shove off”. He meant that – in order to preserve some sort of unity – he would not insist on the opposition voting in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament. Jeremy Corbyn shows no such sign of grace. |
| No one who lived through the last crisis will imagine that the fightback will be painless. But it will be necessary | |
| All the evidence suggests that he is willing neither to retract nor amend. Indeed, were he prepared to do either, his closest associates would prevent it. As a result, the danger of Labour becoming an irrelevance is as great as it was in the early 80s – or even greater. Then, the policies that combined extremism and fantasy were only advocated by Tony Benn inside the party and Militant on its fringes. Now they are espoused by the party leader. Unless some drastic action is quickly taken, there is a real risk of disintegration. There will be no formal split. Elderly Liberal Democrats, insisting that without them the Conservative “health reforms” would have been even worse, confirm the futility of walking – or running – away. But the defection of the Gang of Four in 1981 was far less damaging to Labour’s long-term interest than the alienation of thousands of moderate party supporters. That is happening again. | All the evidence suggests that he is willing neither to retract nor amend. Indeed, were he prepared to do either, his closest associates would prevent it. As a result, the danger of Labour becoming an irrelevance is as great as it was in the early 80s – or even greater. Then, the policies that combined extremism and fantasy were only advocated by Tony Benn inside the party and Militant on its fringes. Now they are espoused by the party leader. Unless some drastic action is quickly taken, there is a real risk of disintegration. There will be no formal split. Elderly Liberal Democrats, insisting that without them the Conservative “health reforms” would have been even worse, confirm the futility of walking – or running – away. But the defection of the Gang of Four in 1981 was far less damaging to Labour’s long-term interest than the alienation of thousands of moderate party supporters. That is happening again. |
| The reasonable majority want reassurance – clear proof that there are potential party leaders who still believe in the politics of reason and reality. That will require the formal and public renunciation of many of the policies on which the leadership election was won and the construction of a viable economic policy – a wholly legitimate process in a party which prides itself on being a broad church. | The reasonable majority want reassurance – clear proof that there are potential party leaders who still believe in the politics of reason and reality. That will require the formal and public renunciation of many of the policies on which the leadership election was won and the construction of a viable economic policy – a wholly legitimate process in a party which prides itself on being a broad church. |
| Corbyn seems to imagine that he has a mandate to impose his will on the Labour party. But policy is neither the private property of the leader nor the cause of casual amusement for people who bought a £3 vote in this year’s leadership election. The parliamentary party ought to take control of the political agenda – using the Thursday evening meeting to discuss the line that Labour should take in House of Commons debates and, where necessary, voting to confirm the decision. MPs are entitled to follow their consciences in the way in which Corbyn followed his during the 32 years in which he voted against the Labour leadership more than 500 times. | Corbyn seems to imagine that he has a mandate to impose his will on the Labour party. But policy is neither the private property of the leader nor the cause of casual amusement for people who bought a £3 vote in this year’s leadership election. The parliamentary party ought to take control of the political agenda – using the Thursday evening meeting to discuss the line that Labour should take in House of Commons debates and, where necessary, voting to confirm the decision. MPs are entitled to follow their consciences in the way in which Corbyn followed his during the 32 years in which he voted against the Labour leadership more than 500 times. |
| That is why refusing to serve in the shadow cabinet is self-indulgent nonsense. As well as providing an excuse for Corbyn to promote nonentities, refusal denies senior MPs a ready-made platform from which to express their dissent. As late as 1984, the shadow cabinet – meeting at a trade union conference centre in Rottingdean – found that unilateralism was on the agenda. Denis Healey simply announced: “We won’t have it.” That is the spirit in which moderates should agree to serve. | That is why refusing to serve in the shadow cabinet is self-indulgent nonsense. As well as providing an excuse for Corbyn to promote nonentities, refusal denies senior MPs a ready-made platform from which to express their dissent. As late as 1984, the shadow cabinet – meeting at a trade union conference centre in Rottingdean – found that unilateralism was on the agenda. Denis Healey simply announced: “We won’t have it.” That is the spirit in which moderates should agree to serve. |
| It would be an abdication to wait for Corbyn to take all the blame for the catastrophic defeat that inevitably follows. In 1983 John Golding – the self-styled “hammer of the left” – had similar ideas, and proposed the incorporation of every hard-left policy proposal into the election manifesto. The result was the “longest suicide note” in history and the loss of a dozen seats we might have saved. The hard left were spectacularly unrepentant. | |
| Being one of the token moderates in the Corbyn shadow cabinet will not be fun. It was bad enough to be denounced as a traitor by one Eric Heffer – in his own opinion, the conscience of the left. To be excoriated by half a dozen will be intolerable, but must be tolerated. No one who lived through the last crisis will imagine that the fightback will be painless. But it will be necessary. | Being one of the token moderates in the Corbyn shadow cabinet will not be fun. It was bad enough to be denounced as a traitor by one Eric Heffer – in his own opinion, the conscience of the left. To be excoriated by half a dozen will be intolerable, but must be tolerated. No one who lived through the last crisis will imagine that the fightback will be painless. But it will be necessary. |
| The MPs who take the lead may well be risking their careers. If Labour is to row back into the mainstream of politics, the risk has to be taken. In the early 80s determined efforts were made to “deselect” Labour members of parliament who disagreed with leftwing orthodoxy. Jon Lansman (then a Tony Benn henchman, now a member of Corbyn’s inner circle) has already called for “mandatory reselection”. That would put every MP on notice – follow the Corbyn line or face the prospect of rejection. Thirty years ago, robust characters brushed their tormentors aside. But some MPs were cast out and a number of Labour apostates only joined the SDP as an escape route from persecution – all done in the bogus name of democracy. | The MPs who take the lead may well be risking their careers. If Labour is to row back into the mainstream of politics, the risk has to be taken. In the early 80s determined efforts were made to “deselect” Labour members of parliament who disagreed with leftwing orthodoxy. Jon Lansman (then a Tony Benn henchman, now a member of Corbyn’s inner circle) has already called for “mandatory reselection”. That would put every MP on notice – follow the Corbyn line or face the prospect of rejection. Thirty years ago, robust characters brushed their tormentors aside. But some MPs were cast out and a number of Labour apostates only joined the SDP as an escape route from persecution – all done in the bogus name of democracy. |
| Related: Unifier or ideologue? Jeremy Corbyn could learn a lot from Ken Livingstone | Hugh Muir | |
| High-minded commentators will say that self-respect – as well as Burke’s dictum that MPs are more than delegates – should be enough to make members under pressure assert their independence. Real life is less simple than the pundits pretend. MPs in secure seats – and those of a naturally bellicose disposition – must create some sort of support organisation which, by showing that reason is not dead, encourages like-minded party members to rally round. It will be part of the process of demonstrating that the battle to save the Labour party is under way. | High-minded commentators will say that self-respect – as well as Burke’s dictum that MPs are more than delegates – should be enough to make members under pressure assert their independence. Real life is less simple than the pundits pretend. MPs in secure seats – and those of a naturally bellicose disposition – must create some sort of support organisation which, by showing that reason is not dead, encourages like-minded party members to rally round. It will be part of the process of demonstrating that the battle to save the Labour party is under way. |
| “Labour Solidarity”, set up in 1981, kept the details of its operations secret not because they were sinister, but because they were risible. At first we had no members and no money. A more or less full time, though voluntary, secretary wrote to constituencies offering to arrange for visiting speakers. A dozen or so of us took turns to explore uncharted territory. Sometimes we were shouted down – told to join the Tories or the SDP. This was a salutary reminder of the treatment endured by rank and file members in local meetings. More often we were welcomed by representatives of what we came to call “the real Labour party”. | “Labour Solidarity”, set up in 1981, kept the details of its operations secret not because they were sinister, but because they were risible. At first we had no members and no money. A more or less full time, though voluntary, secretary wrote to constituencies offering to arrange for visiting speakers. A dozen or so of us took turns to explore uncharted territory. Sometimes we were shouted down – told to join the Tories or the SDP. This was a salutary reminder of the treatment endured by rank and file members in local meetings. More often we were welcomed by representatives of what we came to call “the real Labour party”. |
| Now it has to be done all over again. The sooner the fightback begins the better. | Now it has to be done all over again. The sooner the fightback begins the better. |