Labour is as troubled as its opponents are
If the Conservatives thought they were in trouble following the debacle of last Thursday’s European elections, they can at least find some shreds of consolation in the meltdown taking place in Labour. The expulsion of Alastair Campbell from the party is evidence, if any more were needed, of the deep hole it is in. One of the architects of New Labour, with Tony Blair, and of the biggest landslide victory in modern political history, Campbell was a loyalist who stuck with the movement even after its take over by the hard Left.
It will have pained him to have voted for the Liberal Democrats in last week’s European elections, a fact he did not need to vouchsafe. Having done so, he was aware of the probable consequences.
The Left loathes the Blairite wing of the party, not least for the Iraq war, and will not be sorry to see him go. Yet, ironically, Mr Campbell voted for the Lib Dems because they are committed to another referendum on EU membership, which also happens to be the majority view among the largely Left-wing activist base. Being penalised for backing a policy that most of the party is keen to adopt is emblematic of the surreal nature of current politics.
Jeremy Corbyn is under massive pressure from within the shadow cabinet to change the party’s policy and unequivocally embrace a second referendum and then to campaign to remain in the EU. Diane Abbott, a close ally of the leader, indicated yesterday that this was her preference, or at least that was what she seemed to say in trying to explain Labour’s convoluted approach.
At the same time, however, Labour MPS in Brexit-supporting Northern seats are pulling in the opposite direction, fearing they will be ousted at a general election. As Lisa Nandy, MP for Wigan, observed: “There is a huge frustration among Labour voters who voted Leave in towns like mine to see leading figures from the Labour Party out calling for a second referendum before there’s been any serious attempt to implement the result of the first.”
Trapped in the middle, Mr Corbyn is unable, or unwilling, to make a decision one way or the other. There will be consequences whatever he does and the risk is that some seats will go. But there may be an even greater risk for Labour inherent in the current stasis, since they are being squeezed from both sides – losing out to the Brexit Party in Leave areas and to the Lib Dems and Greens in Remain areas, which is why Labour was pushed into third place last week.
If the Brexit Party wins the Peterborough by-election next week (a former Tory seat won by Labour in 2017), Mr Corbyn will find it hard to hold the line against Remainers demanding a change of tack. Yet two months after the UK should have left the EU and five months before the next deadline for doing so, he gives the impression of a man bumbling his way towards electoral oblivion.
His grip on the party has been rendered even more tenuous by the re-emergence of the anti-semitism allegations that continue to plague the party because of its failure to get to grips with the perpetrators. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a formal investigation after receiving a number of complaints and is considering whether Labour has “unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish”. How extraordinary, how shameful that a party always quick to mount its moral high horse to lecture everyone else about racism should be arraigned for just that.