Long road back to credibility...
FROM today, many Labour MPs are daring to dream that the hardLeft’s Stalinist grip over their party is loosening at last. Nominations for the final phase of the contest to choose Jeremy Corbyn’s successor closed at midnight last night.
The final figures made cheering reading for those desperate to see the back of the outgoing leader’s hard-line socialist clique.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Mr Corbyn’s anointed heir, secured the backing of fewer than half the constituency Labour parties that Sir Keir Starmer, the frontrunner for the job, managed. “I think Keir is nearly there,” one long-suffering moderate Labour MP told me, adding: “Let’s hope we can get rid of the Leftwing loonies at last.”
Ms Long-Bailey has fought a feeble campaign for the Labour crown so far. Her droning speeches do little more than endlessly repeat the word “communities” while her only reference to any kind of life outside politics has been to cite her love of eating Pot Noodle.
A football terrace-style chant of “Whoa Becky Long-Bailey!” is sporadically heard at her rallies, but never sung with much gusto.
Like many charismatic socialist movements, Corbynism has a succession problem. In Left-wing Venezuela, the popular demagogue Hugo Chavez was followed by the grim-faced bureaucrat Nicolás Maduro.With Mr Corbyn preparing to retire to his North London cabbage patch, Corbynism is set to turn into a personality cult without any personality to lead it.
IN CONTRAST, Sir Keir has fought a deft campaign based on saying as little as possible. His vague promise not to abandon Mr Corbyn’s “radicalism” masks a lack of specific commitments to retain the outgoing leader’s disastrous hard-Left policies.
He has sensibly minimised discussion of the country’s European future given his personal role in devising Labour’s disastrously dithering Brexit policy at the last election. Sir Keir’s pitch to the party grassroots has been based on persuading the main opposition party to go back to providing some competent opposition at Westminster.
His approach appears to be succeeding in winning over softer-Left elements of Mr Corbyn’s support base and moderates desperate for Labour to start the hard slog out of the socialist wilderness to become a viable contender for office at the next general election.
If Sir Keir does emerge as the winner when the contest concludes in April, the balance of power within the party will tilt back towards MPs and away from the activists. Party moderates believe he will sweep out the gang of ideologues currently infesting the Leader of the Opposition’s office and curb the influence of Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union. They hope he will open the door to veteran MPs like Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper to return to Labour’s frontbench.
He is also expected to find a prominent role for Lisa Nandy, who has fought an impressive leadership campaign without appearing to do enough to win. Some Labour insiders are tipping her to be the next shadow chancellor.
Yet much of Labour’s party machinery, from constituency party chairs to the ruling National Executive Committee, will remain in the hands of the hard-Left after Mr Corbyn and his acolytes have gone. Grassroots activists continue to press for automatic reselection rules to bully sitting MPs with the threat of the sack if they fail to toe the Left-wing line.
The next Labour leader will also have to tackle the hard-line Momentum clique that is far more embedded in the party than the Militant Tendency was in the 1980s.
Sir Keir still has some way to go before he can clinch the leadership job. And while optimism may be growing among his supporters at Westminster, Labour’s long march back to electability has still yet to begin.
JACOB Rees-Mogg appeared unruffled by a bizarre suggestion from chief Downing Street enforcer Dominic Cummings that children’s cartoon superheroes PJ Masks could do “a better job” than most Cabinet ministers. “I have six children and, as could be imagined, I watch a lot of cartoons,” the Commons Leader said during Parliament’s weekly Business Questions session. “I am quite an expert. I feel I have much in common with Daddy Pig,” he added.
NEIL Hudson amused MPs during his Commons maiden speech by recalling how a dog latched on to his leg “in an amorous manner” while he was out canvassing. “I looked down and said to the owner – ‘Well, I think I’ve secured his vote’,” said the Tory MP. He added that the owner smiled and told him: “You’ve got mine too, now.”
SARAH Atherton marked a historic moment on delivering her Commons maiden speech in the chamber on Thursday. “How proud all the family are now, as one of them rises as the first ever female Conservative MP for Wales,” the Westminster newcomer said, adding: “I think they have even forgiven me for being a Tory.”
PEERS could soon be wearing face masks during House of Lords debates after concern about coronavirus reaching Westminster. “The average age in this House is 70. We therefore form part of the most vulnerable group,” Labour’s Lord Campbell-Savours told colleagues during a debate on the global outbreak. He urged Lords chiefs to prepare advice “including, in the event of an infection breakout in London, the wearing of face masks in these premises”.
BARONESS Vere was applauded by fellow peers after reading out Boris Johnson’s statement about high-speed rail in the Upper House, complete with his jokes. Once forbidden by parliamentary convention, clapping was increasingly tolerated in the Commons by former Speaker John Bercow. It now seems to be creeping into the Lords as well.