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| Labour must 'end the madness' over Jeremy Corbyn, says Alan Johnson | Labour must 'end the madness' over Jeremy Corbyn, says Alan Johnson |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Labour party should “end the madness” of a growing surge in support for Jeremy Corbyn and elect Yvette Cooper, who has “the intellect, the experience and the inner steel” to succeed as leader, Alan Johnson has said. | |
| In a boost to the shadow home secretary’s campaign, Johnson says she can unite the party to win power as he launches a strong attack on Corbyn and his supporters for disloyalty to progressive Labour governments. | |
| Related: Why Labour should end the madness and elect Yvette Cooper | Alan Johnson | Related: Why Labour should end the madness and elect Yvette Cooper | Alan Johnson |
| Writing for the Guardian, the former home secretary says: “In my view only Yvette Cooper can unite the party to win again. Those members who can’t give her their first preference should give her their second. After over a century of male leaders we have an election where the most qualified candidate to lead our party back to government happens to be a woman. Let’s end the madness and elect her.” | Writing for the Guardian, the former home secretary says: “In my view only Yvette Cooper can unite the party to win again. Those members who can’t give her their first preference should give her their second. After over a century of male leaders we have an election where the most qualified candidate to lead our party back to government happens to be a woman. Let’s end the madness and elect her.” |
| Johnson says supporters of Corbyn who shout betrayal at Cooper and other members of the last government should remember a series of progressive measures, including the minimum wage and greater rights for trade union members, introduced by the Blair and Brown governments. | |
| The support of the former postal union leader, who is respected across the Labour party, will help the shadow home secretary as she seeks to position herself as the candidate best placed to beat Corbyn. | |
| The campaigns by Cooper and the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, have been thrown into turmoil by the success of Corbyn, who is speaking to packed meetings across the country. The fourth candidate, the shadow social care minister, Liz Kendall, is struggling to win support. | The campaigns by Cooper and the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, have been thrown into turmoil by the success of Corbyn, who is speaking to packed meetings across the country. The fourth candidate, the shadow social care minister, Liz Kendall, is struggling to win support. |
| Johnson is one of the few Labour “big beasts” from the last government who is still left in the House of Commons after the retirement at the general election of Gordon Brown, Jack Straw and Alistair Darling. | Johnson is one of the few Labour “big beasts” from the last government who is still left in the House of Commons after the retirement at the general election of Gordon Brown, Jack Straw and Alistair Darling. |
| In his article, Johnson writes: “Jeremy’s ... been cheerfully disloyal to every Labour leader he’s ever served under. That’s fine so long as members understand that it’s the loyalty and discipline of the rest of us that created the NHS, the Open University.” | |
| Dubbed Tony Blair’s favourite trade union leader, Johnson is associated with the Blairite wing of the party. He might have been expected to back Kendall, who has been echoing much of the former prime minister’s warnings that Labour will only win power again if it reaches out to Middle Britain voters, who have supported the Tories in the last two general elections. | Dubbed Tony Blair’s favourite trade union leader, Johnson is associated with the Blairite wing of the party. He might have been expected to back Kendall, who has been echoing much of the former prime minister’s warnings that Labour will only win power again if it reaches out to Middle Britain voters, who have supported the Tories in the last two general elections. |
| But Johnson’s backing for Cooper suggests that the Blairite wing of the party now believes that she is the candidate with some modernising credentials who is best placed to beat Corbyn. | But Johnson’s backing for Cooper suggests that the Blairite wing of the party now believes that she is the candidate with some modernising credentials who is best placed to beat Corbyn. |
| The former home secretary is scathing about Dave Ward, the general secretary of his old Communication Workers’ Union, who endorsed Corbyn on the grounds that he is the “antidote” to the “virus” of Blairism. | The former home secretary is scathing about Dave Ward, the general secretary of his old Communication Workers’ Union, who endorsed Corbyn on the grounds that he is the “antidote” to the “virus” of Blairism. |
| “I can understand why the ‘virus’ drivel should emanate from our political opponents, including those in the various far-left sects who last tried to bring their finger-jabbing intolerance into our party 35 years ago. What I’m puzzled by is why it should come from trade union leaders whose members benefited so much under the last Labour government.” | “I can understand why the ‘virus’ drivel should emanate from our political opponents, including those in the various far-left sects who last tried to bring their finger-jabbing intolerance into our party 35 years ago. What I’m puzzled by is why it should come from trade union leaders whose members benefited so much under the last Labour government.” |
| In his article, Johnson also addressed the recent fiasco of the Labour vote on the government’s welfare reform bill, which has inflicted immense damage to the campaigns of Cooper and Burnham. Critics have accused them of cowardice for expressing opposition to the bill, only to follow instructions from Harriet Harman to abstain in a commons vote. | |
| The two shadow cabinet ministers voiced unease about Harman’s tactics but agreed to follow her lead to preserve party unity. Johnson writes: “The Commons vote on the welfare bill was a mess. Shadow cabinet members felt they had to support collective responsibility. Jeremy had no such constraints ... Are the other three candidates to be condemned for an abstention in opposition but not applauded for being part of the government that helped to increase the income of the working poor in the first place?” | The two shadow cabinet ministers voiced unease about Harman’s tactics but agreed to follow her lead to preserve party unity. Johnson writes: “The Commons vote on the welfare bill was a mess. Shadow cabinet members felt they had to support collective responsibility. Jeremy had no such constraints ... Are the other three candidates to be condemned for an abstention in opposition but not applauded for being part of the government that helped to increase the income of the working poor in the first place?” |
| Johnson also addresses what many of Corbyn’s critics claim is one of his main weaknesses: that he has never seen himself as prime ministerial material. Johnson points out that next month marks the centenary of the death of Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour party, who was “inspired by Methodism more than Marxism” to win power to eradicate poverty and promote greater equality. | |
| He suggests that neither he nor Corbyn could live up to those ideals because neither has the appetite to be prime minister. “So who should lead Labour? I have never had the ambition or the appetite that this job requires. Neither has Jeremy Corbyn as he’s honest enough to admit.” | |
| Johnson says that a Cooper victory would mark a historic breakthrough by the party most committed to women’s rights but which has never been led on a permanent basis by a woman. But he writes that he is not supporting Cooper just on the grounds of gender. | |
| “Of course this decision should not be made on gender alone. I believe that Yvette has the intellect, the experience and the inner-steel to succeed in this most difficult of roles. I’ve been enormously impressed by her poise, command of her brief as shadow home secretary and by her ideas on tackling inequality, child poverty and a radical programme of genuine devolution.” | “Of course this decision should not be made on gender alone. I believe that Yvette has the intellect, the experience and the inner-steel to succeed in this most difficult of roles. I’ve been enormously impressed by her poise, command of her brief as shadow home secretary and by her ideas on tackling inequality, child poverty and a radical programme of genuine devolution.” |
| Johnson, who was recently appointed by Harman, Labour’s interim leader, to serve as head of Labour’s pro-EU campaign group, has faced pressure to run for the leadership himself on numerous occasions in recent years. There was a concerted attempt to persuade him to make himself available last year if Ed Miliband could have been persuaded to stand down. As a party loyalist, Johnson declined the offer. | |
| Johnson, who is a regular as #manontheleft on Andrew Neil’s This Week programme, has a personal charm and a fluency that has made him a popular figure. As deputy to former education secretary Charles Clarke, he said that they formed a double act in a charm offensive to persuade the Labour party to back university tuition fees. Johnson said Clarke did the offensive and he did the charm. | Johnson, who is a regular as #manontheleft on Andrew Neil’s This Week programme, has a personal charm and a fluency that has made him a popular figure. As deputy to former education secretary Charles Clarke, he said that they formed a double act in a charm offensive to persuade the Labour party to back university tuition fees. Johnson said Clarke did the offensive and he did the charm. |