Labour’s future and probably the course of UK politics will be
known by Mid-Day
There have been three Labour leadership contest since the Second
World War that have remained in my memory. All three were crucial to the future
direction of the Labour Party.
After the
retirement of Clement Attlee as leader the December
1955 party leadership contest saw Hugh Gaitskell defeat Aneurin Bevan. The struggle
back in the 1950’s within the party was in many respects as it is today, should
it be a party of the left, centre or right. Gaitskell’s time as leader was also
characterised by factional infighting between the 'Bevanite'
left of the Labour party led by Aneurin Bevan,
and the 'Gaitskellite' right.
Throughout his life, Gaitskell remained a
committed social democrat. He led an ardent group of followers inside the
Labour Party – people like Roy Jenkins and Bill Rodgers – who eventually formed
the breakaway SDP in 1981. In 1994, Tony Blair would take up many of the views
of Gaitskell’s acolytes in a sort of ‘SDP Mark II’.
Then in November 1980, Foot defeated Healey to become Labour’s
leader winning by a very small margin—51.9% to 48.1%. It was hinted many times
that some MPs who went on to form the SDP voted for Foot instead of Healey!
There is no need to explain why they took that tactical decision when their
natural home should have been with Denis Healey. Soon thereafter around 30 Labour
MPs left the Labour party and followed Roy Jenkins to create the SDP in 1981.
In November 1981, Tony Benn challenged Denis Healey for the deputy
leadership of the party despite every attempt being made to urge him not to
stand—as the SDP had only been formed a few months previously. Benn came within
a whisker of winning with the margin being 50.4% to 49.6%. It has also been
chronicled that Neil Kinnock had been instrumental in persuading some 30 or so
soft-left MPs not to back Benn. Given the closeness of the race, these MPs
tipped the balance in stopping Benn. One can only contemplate what would have
happened to Labour with a Foot/Benn leadership and many gave Kinnock credit, at
the time, for saving the party from possible oblivion. But I have no doubt that
Neil had a wider agenda in sight—he saw an opportunity on the horizon because
Foot was always going to be a one election candidate. Therefore, stopping Benn
was crucial for him.
The three previous campaigns were indeed pivotal but nowhere near as
crucial as the one that we have just witnessed. Jeremy Corbyn has been making
most of the running during the campaign and has been receiving the majority of
the media’s attention. It is ironic that Corbyn owes his presence on the ballot
paper to the generous help given him by Andy Burnham’s supporters so that he
could achieve the necessary number of MP nominations to allow him to stand for
the leadership. His nomination, it was argued, would ensure a wider choice for
the Labour membership between the differing wings of the party—left/soft
left/centre-right. Maybe my description is a crude one, but it is not too far
off reality.
It
is probably very true that what has taken place over the summer has not only
been an earth shattering experience for the Labour Party establishment but also
to Corbyn himself. The huge crowds at his campaign rallies were for me reminiscent
of the first 18 months of the SDP and both happenings have one thing in common
and that is the emergence of the politics of hope. I am not going to rehearse all
the conflicting arguments of this summer’s campaign only to emphasise that whoever
wins the fact will be that the Labour Party will never be the same again.
Grassroots
democracy has broken through and Corbyn has let out the genie from Labour’s lamp – it can never be put back again. Some month
or so ago The Guardian newspaper carried a survey that included some 3,000
people asking in essence why people were turning to Corbyn, the results were very
interesting but to me entirely obvious.
The responses in relation to the Labour party itself indicated total
disillusionment and there were hundreds of comments similar to this one ‘what
is the point of winning just to implement Tory-light policies’. Another theme
repeated often was ‘Labour is not facing up to the reality that millions of
lives have been blighted by Tory ideology and their agenda’. Then finally ‘what
is the point of Labour if not to stand up for ordinary working people as well
as the young, sick disabled or unemployed’.
In other words it is clear that the general party membership and
supporters want major changes to party policy. Then on Corbyn himself most of
the comments that were made can be summarised by the following two. ‘He is the
only one talking about child poverty, homelessness, unaffordable housing,
privatisation and progressive taxation’ and then ‘they (the four candidates)
are all likely to lose the next general election but at least Corbyn will do it
with some principles’
. The
political establishment are still trapped in the old politics and either they
are oblivious to the emerging changes that are clearly evident in society or
are trying to deliberately ignore them. They forget that 66% of the electorate
either did not vote or voted anti –Tory and yet Mr Cameron, his party and the right
wing press truly believe that all is well with the world. Indeed only 24% of those entitled to vote made
him Prime Minister under our crumbling, archaic electoral system.
Corbyn
has captured and articulated far better than the other three candidates the public
mood and the increasing clamour for more transparency; fairness; justice;
freedom and equality; defending human rights and responding to the humanitarian
crisis; pursuing a wider understanding of international development issues; the
ever present apprehension over the environment and climate change and concerns
over deepening world poverty and so on. It is interesting that these are issues
that motivate Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrat too.
I
have no doubt that there will a huge television audience tuning in about 11.0 o’clock
this morning to view the outcome. I recall vividly doing the same in 1980 and
1981 – those two leadership contests had consequences which saw the Labour
Party splitting and importantly thereafter only being in Government for 13 out
of the following 36 years. We’ll just have to watch and wait! I have a feeling
British politics is not going to be the same for a long while after this
morning’s decision.