Labour needs snap decision
Two weeks ago, before I went on holiday, I said so much had happened in politics in the previous month, I didn’t know what Britain would be like when I got back.
While I was away Cameron seemed to give a gong to all of his mates and cronies – even the ones who helped him lose the referendum. He even gave an honour to his wife’s stylist.
“Maggie” May seems to be going even further than Thatcher even dared. Scrapping the Climate Change department, possibly lifting Labour’s ban on grammar schools and even bribing people to accept fracking.
Personally I think utilising natural gas could be a good thing if proved to be safe. But offering £10,000 to a householder who lives near to a fracking site will hardly compensate for the loss in the house price value.
It would also pit neighbour against neighbour: “Did you accept May’s 30 pieces of silver, Bill?”
What we’re seeing now is the leadership campaign May would have run. Except, thanks to her coronation, she’s getting to do it from No 10.
But May is a woman in a hurry. Why? Because she knows she’s going to get nowhere fast on Brexit with Boris, David Davis and Liam Fox in charge of negotiations. Which is just what she wants.
She knows it would be crazy to leave the Single European Market. But she needs more time and other policies and events to divert people’s attentions and get her own mandate.
Which makes me think she’s getting geared up to call a snap election before next May.
She’d be mad not to. Labour are seven per cent behind in the polls and are currently fighting the most pointless contest since Eddie the Eagle took on a ski jump.
I watched the first leadership hustings between Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn. They agreed on almost every policy. Their main difference was that each believed they had the best chance of winning the next General Election.
But you’ve got to accept Corbyn has managed to create the largest political party in Europe with more than half a million members, including the thousands I saw at his mass meeting in Hull.
Corbyn will win this leadership election as every MP knows. So what happens next?
Labour – against Corbyn’s wishes – successfully appealed against a High Court judgment that overturned its ban on 130,000 new members banned from voting in the leadership contest. So we won’t give a voice to these new members but we will give a vote to people who can stump up £25? What a crazy mess. And now, Labour’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson has trotted out his own manifesto for when Corbyn almost certainly wins. Firstly, Tom wants us to bring back Shadow Cabinet elections, which were scrapped under Ed Miliband. This meant MPs voted for who they wanted at the top table.
That only works if MPs are prepared to work with Corbyn. If Tom thinks he can convince the 172 MPs who said they had no confidence in Corbyn to work with him again, then great.
But Tom’s other idea is to change the “one member, one vote” system we use to elect our leader and move back to the old electoral college.
Under this system, MPs had 33 per cent of the vote, with trade unions and other socialist groups having a third, along with other members. This meant MPs who were union and group members had many votes. Harriet Harman said she had seven.
When I was Deputy Leader, I liked to think I was the bridge between members and the leader. By taking equal voting rights away from members, it seems Tom wants to build a wall and strengthen the Parliamentary Labour Party of MPs.
I share some of Tom’s concerns that some far-left people have joined Labour. But the vast majority of new members are ordinary people who are excited about what Corbyn is saying.
As Deputy Leader, I focused on working with members, MPs and the leadership on getting Labour ready for the next election. We did win three elections.
I hope whatever the result, he’ll do the same.