MY PARTY HAS BEEN RUINED BY INTOLERANT, INCOMPETENT EXTREMISTS

JUST when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. That has been my feeling in the past few weeks, observing the chaos that has engulfed Labour, the party I joined as a young man and to which I have devoted my life.

As its conference continues this week in Brighton, this should be the moment for Labour to make a dramatic advance towards office by showing statesmanship and unifying the nation. Not based on envy, resentment or class war, exemplified by the ill-conceived and undeliverable education proposals voted through yesterday, but on bringing people together in common endeavour for the future.

The circumstances could hardly be more favourable, given the mess that envelops the Tory Government. With his party in meltdown, Boris Johnson has enjoyed one of the most fractious and difficult periods of any prime minister in history – and has barely been in the job two months. At the same time, the Liberal Democrats have displayed their contempt for ‘democracy’ through their pledge – backed at their conference in Bournemouth last week – to cancel Brexit without a referendum in the vanishingly unlikely event that they ever win power.

The flight by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats from democratic responsibility provides a compelling opportunity for Labour to emerge as the mainstream, pragmatic voice. But that chance is being squandered.

Once again, Corbyn has let his and my party down by fomenting division and promoting extremism. Even some of his own supporters are in despair. Yesterday, it was revealed that Andrew Fisher, Corbyn’s head of policy and the author of the 2017 general election manifesto, has decided to resign.

‘I no longer have faith that we will succeed,’ he wrote in an anguished memo, while complaining bitterly of the ‘lack of professionalism, competence and human decency’ in Corbyn’s Labour, which produces ‘a blizzard of lies and excuses’.

Fisher’s point was proved by the extraordinary attempt last Friday by Corbyn’s followers – led by Jon Lansman, the chairman of the Momentum pressure group – on the National Executive Committee to oust Tom Watson, the party’s elected deputy leader.

Watson had angered these extremists with both his spirit of independence and his support for Remain, in contrast to Corbyn’s opaque, convoluted position on Brexit.

BUT instead of following normal democratic procedures to remove him by seeking a vote of the membership, Lansman and his hardliners urged the National Executive Committee simply to abolish Watson’s post. This was an outrage against all Labour’s traditions.

The post of deputy leader is integral to the party’s constitution and has been held by some of Labour’s greatest figures, including Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and Denis Healey. These men would be appalled at the damage inflicted by Lansman and his ilk.

The same intolerance could be seen in Lansman’s move to throw out Labour Students, the longstanding organisation which engages young people with the worlds of politics and campaigning.

What was their crime? To have been dedicated to Labour winning elections, rather than to extremists winning within Labour.

So, as the conference continues, the intolerant, the ideological and, yes, the incompetent, could well snatch ‘defeat from the jaws of victory’. A YouGov poll – which carries a health warning as to its reliability – published over the weekend exposed the disconnect between too many Labour members and the electorate.

While much of the public is appalled at the evidence of toxic anti- Jewish prejudice in Labour’s ranks, two thirds of the members believe the party doesn’t have a problem with anti-Semitism. As many as 54 per cent think that the crisis is the fault of the media or Jeremy’s opponents.

Even more shockingly, more members (32 per cent versus 27 per cent) believe that the British government was ‘most to blame’ for the Troubles in Northern Ireland – rather than the IRA.

Two-thirds are ‘ashamed’ about Britain’s history. And a clear majority (62 per cent) want to see the monarchy abolished. These are not the views held by the vast majority of decent, ordinary Britons up and down the country.

No wonder long-standing members like me would wish to be anywhere other than Brighton over the next three days. If nothing changes, Labour is doomed. Those within the party who fail to stand up to extremism are cowardly, compliant and culpable – because by acting as bystanders, they will have been complicit in keeping Labour out of power.

In these circumstances, any normal opposition party could have expected to be way ahead in the polls. Yet one opinion poll yesterday showed Labour on just 22 per cent, compared to the Tories’ 37. The only way Labour can begin to implement any form of agenda for change is by careful and informal alliances with those who espouse a different sort of politics from Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Painful as it is to remind my colleagues, in 1983, Labour managed a humiliating 28 per cent in the opinion polls, while the Social Democratic party – in alliance with the then-Liberals – achieved around 25 per cent. That election saw Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives gain a thumping majority in Parliament of 144.

TODAY, Labour is polling some distance behind the Conservatives and not much in front of the Lib Dems. The Scottish Nationalists command the field north of the border, and were there to be an election before Brexit, some form of deal would be done between Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

This week in Brighton, the Labour Party conference should be a serious affair, presenting itself as an alternative government to the British people. Not a crowd of outof-touch sycophants or airy dreamers, but a gathering of people determined to improve the lives of their countrymen, to implement policies that would transform social care, rapidly improve standards in education, invest in housing and the environment and climate change for our future.

Jeremy Corbyn, even at this late stage, must present himself as leader of a ‘broad church’ of sensible, rational and even radical individuals who can address the injustices of the moment without the ideological baggage. But don’t hold your breath for that.