I despair at the behaviour of Labour’s hard-left

Moderate voices within the party should not quit now, especially since we are set to lose this general election

Well, what a crazy start to this general election campaign, marked so far by ineptitude and a display of top-down, old-style command-and-control politics that seems designed to put people off voting altogether.

On the Conservative side, Jacob Rees-mogg’s crass remarks about Grenfell Tower residents were followed by the resignation of the Welsh secretary Alun Cairns over claims he knew about a former aide’s role in the “sabotage” of a rape trial. A doctored video designed to put shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer in a bad light also backfired badly for the Conservative Party.

Labour, meanwhile, was once again plagued by intolerance and division. Sally Gimson, the party’s excellent candidate for Bassetlaw, was deselected by the hard-left on the National Executive Committee. Two former Labour MPS, Ian Austin and John Woodcock, attacked the leadership over the way it has handled the scourge of anti-semitism within its ranks. Mr Austin even called on voters to back Boris Johnson – a mistake, because of the damage it might cause to his former friends and colleagues.

The behaviour of the hard-left within the Labour Party – the antisemitism, the thuggery, the irrational views on security and international issues, and the lack of realisation that you have to embrace a big tent of people in order to win – certainly makes me despair.

Perversely, it also makes the likelihood of an all-out Labour majority in this general election extraordinarily slim. The political landscape right now is completely different to what the hard-left would have you believe. We are in a 1983 situation here, not a 2017 one – with not only the Lib Dems and the Greens, but the Brexit Party, the Tories and the SNP all seriously vying for traditional Labour votes.

So the issue is not whether we want Labour to win an overall majority but whether we find ourselves in a hung parliament again with Labour in opposition. And that’s exactly when a cohort of sensible, moderate Labour MPS is seriously needed, both for the future of the country and the Labour Party, to ensure that the voice of reason will prevail.

Whatever Labour moderates might think of the leadership, therefore, quitting is not an option – because there is going to be a future for Labour, and the future is worth fighting for.

And if you don’t get a decent result in a general election, you’ve got nothing to fight with.

In our democracy, shambolic as it has been in recent times, the quality of MPS makes an enormous difference. And the vast majority of those in places of authority in Labour, whether MPS or councillors, have been deeply disturbed by what has been happening, and are genuinely committed to getting things sorted. Many of them have, despite enormous pressure, exercised real restraint on the leadership.

These moderate voices may not yet have succeeded in defeating the top-down approach or the antisemitism, but in policy terms they have had an impact – along with the more sensible trade unions, who constantly get forgotten, but who do matter. They aren’t going to let Jeremy Corbyn abandon our defence policy, for example – they’ve got too many members engaged in the defence industry. So there are major restraints on the current leadership, if they can be mobilised – but they can’t be mobilised if existing, sitting Labour MPS are wiped out.

That does mean there has to be moderate Labour MPS still fighting that battle within the party. Trying to form an alternative centre-left party won’t work. Change UK attempted to create something new, and look where that got us. No, we are where we are and we’ve got to fight with what we’ve got.

I think the situation is still retrievable. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be a member of the Labour Party. And it is not all doom and gloom. The leadership’s economic policies, with some moderation, I can live with. We need a big investment programme to renew our country’s infrastructure and help unite a divided nation. The Germans did it 30 years ago following reunification, as did pre-war America with the New Deal programme.

There are reasons for people to be optimistic about constraining the crazier elements in both major parties – but only if those with experience, and an understanding of the nature of our democratic process, and, yes, with the willingness to compromise, are elected on December 12. Incidentally, an unrestrained Boris Johnson is not an attractive prospect, either. Nobody wins if a prime minister ends up in such a powerful position that they can completely disregard their opponents.

Because of an arcane law going back centuries, members of the House of Lords, like felons, are disqualified from exercising their civic and citizenship rights. But, if I had a vote, I would still be casting it for my local Labour candidate.

Jeremy Corbyn said last week that “this is not about me”. He might well be one critical issue for some voters, but the local candidate whose name you put a cross beside on December 12 will surely be the deciding factor. And that is why moderate Labour voices must stay and fight.

read more at telegraph.co.uk/opinion