Will the Labour conference be Corbyn’s last?
AS JEREMY Corbyn heads to Labour’s annual conference today doubts about his grip on the party leadership are rising rapidly. While the Labour leader can expect the usual adulation from the hard-Left delegates who will pack the ACC Liverpool convention centre, behind the scenes some of the party’s key power brokers are beginning to move against him. His party foes sense a wind of change is coming, as brisk as the breeze that blows off the Mersey.
Mr Corbyn’s political mortality will be widely discussed in the bars and restaurants around Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock this week. A year ago, the Labour leader appeared unassailable following his party’s unexpected rise in general election votes. This autumn, after months of infighting, some of his critics are speculating his keynote speech to the conference this Wednesday may be his last.
A marathon nine-hour meeting of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee held this week to discuss proposed party rule changes on candidate selection has lightened the mood among opponents of the Labour leader. A series of attempts by the Corbyn-backing Momentum faction to change party rules to allow them to purge their enemies was repeatedly rebuffed by trade union representatives.
“It just feels that the old party structures and alliances are reasserting themselves,” one insider on Labour’s moderate wing told me. “The unions are telling Momentum that they are not prepared to put up with mob rule. It suddenly feels like the Corbyn era has peaked.”
MR CORBYN’S failure to close down the row about anti-Semitism in Labour ranks appears to have fatally undermined his authority. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, once his closest ally, is said to be among the conspirators plotting a change of leadership – allegations that appeared last week, although they have been denied by McDonnell himself.
“McDonnell is on manoeuvres,” said the Labour source, who felt the frontbencher’s memories of his time as a councillor on the Leftdominated Greater London Council in the 1980s were fuelling desire for change of leadership.
“McDonnell’s had a taste of power in the past and fancies it again. He fears Corbyn’s problems could blow the party’s chances at the next general election,” the Labour insider said. The shadow chancellor, who this week predicted Labour’s next leader will be a woman, is thought to rate the shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey as a potential leadership candidate.
Party moderates are seeking a candidate from the party’s centre-Left who might be capable of beating any Momentum-backed rival in a leadership contest. The shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is being talked about, with shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry being discounted as too “abrasive” by some.
“Most of us would rather hold our noses and vote for someone like Angela than back a kamikaze Blairite candidate. We need someone from the Left who might just steer the party towards the centre,” the Labour insider said.
LABOUR deputy leader Tom Watson could be a key figure in any leadership machinations. Under current rules, he would step in as acting leader if Mr Corbyn was persuaded to stand aside. The fact the conference will spend hours debating rule changes designed to curb his influence is a sign that Momentum is preparing the ground for a coming leadership fight. Mr Corbyn’s allies scrubbed the deputy leader’s keynote speech from the conference timetable in an attempt to humiliate and undermine him.
Most moderate Labour MPs are staying away from the conference. “Speeches at conference have become very controlled,” one told me. “The Labour conference has become a very different event compared with how it was a few years ago. It is not very welcoming.”
In their absence, the event will be another jamboree for Labour’s hardLeft activists. But behind the handclapping show of unity, the balance of power in the party is shifting. Mr Corbyn should savour the adulation from his fan club this week. His days of being the idol of the Left may well be running out.