Corbyn’s closing speech was his best effort yet, but his critics weren’t listening
Jeremy Corbyn made a powerful appeal for Labour “to end the trench warfare” in his closing speech to his party’s conference, but it will fall largely on deaf ears. His MP critics now see themselves as resistance fighters trying to stay alive, knowing they have no chance of killing their enemy after Corbyn’s decisive victory over
Owen Smith.
Corbyn delivered one of his best speeches, a serious attempt to start looking like a government-in-waiting rather than just to please his Labour fan base. Although there was little policy flesh on the bones of his “21st-century socialism”, he was realistic about the “electoral mountain to climb” and need to “win over the unconvinced to our vision”. That is much better than his previous dream of magically converting the 15 million people who did not vote in last year’s election to his cause. Corbyn admitted he had lessons to learn from Labour’s wasted year, nodding to critics like Tom Watson and Sadiq Khan by saying the party’s goal must be power.
Many Labour MPs now admit it was a mistake to challenge Corbyn this year. They are in despair, and have a huge dilemma: they cannot support Corbyn because they think he is an unmitigated disaster, but know they will be blamed for a general election defeat if they carry on their fruitless guerrilla war. The conference gave Corbyn a standing ovation in mid-speech when he made his unity plea, and warned that “no one will be convinced by a divided party”.
So the critics’ third way will be to pursue war by other means. Instead of full-frontal attacks and another attempt to oust Corbyn, the refuseniks who spurn his plea to join his frontbench team will draw up an alternative policy platform, and try to outshine the official Opposition.
The critics will gather under the banner of “Clause One”, taking their name from the opening clause of Labour’s constitution, which says the party’s “purpose is to organise and maintain in Parliament and in the country a political Labour Party”. Their vehicle will be Labour’s backbench committees, which are all chaired by Corbyn opponents.
Some of the 60-plus MPs who resigned will return to the front bench next week, giving Corbyn a semblance of restoring order in a dysfunctional, under-powered Opposition with lots of empty chairs. But despite his clarion call, Labour’s fragile truce will not hold. Its two parties will continue to live parallel lives, like a separated couple living under the same roof, who cannot bring themselves to divorce.
There is deadlock because Corbyn wants unity on his terms, and his critics on theirs. There is no real desire to meet in the middle. By saying that the “vast majority” of MPs had no reason to fear deselection by the new wave of Corbynista members, he left the small minority of vocal critics fearing for their political lives. His critics think his statements about intimidation and social media abuse, restated in his conference speech, are warm words that will not be matched by disciplinary action. Corbyn cannot bring himself to praise anything that New Labour did, because he leads a new party now.
Labour’s great divide will be widened by Corbyn’s refusal to talk numbers on immigration, which ignores the Brexit vote and will alienate many Labour’s traditional supporters. For Corbyn, limiting numbers risks “racism and division”. But, as I reported last Friday, a growing number of Labour MPs regard his principled stand as “toxic”, warning that it will smash the coalition of middle- and working-class supporters without which Labour will not return to power. In turn, they have been branded “red Ukip” by those who want a liberal immigration system and to retain full access to the European single market in the Brexit negotiations.
Significantly, Corbyn did not even take shadow Cabinet loyalists like Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner with him on immigration. Unlike him, they represent northern constituencies and have got the doorstep message. Taking back “control” of immigration was the killer pledge that won Leave the referendum.
The Labour conference didn’t even debate Brexit, the biggest challenge facing the country since the Second World War. It was another sign of a feeble Opposition more interested in internal manoeuvrings about elections to the Shadow Cabinet or national executive committee (NEC) – a turn-off for voters crying out for an effective Opposition to hold the Government to account.
Corbyn will struggle to deliver one. Despite his overwhelming support among party members, he did not have it all his own way at the conference. Some trade union leaders made it clear he had no mandate to lead Labour to a crushing general election defeat. They flexed their muscles over Trident, Labour’s plan to ban fracking and the NEC’s membership. The latter may deny Corbyn the majority he needs to push through reforms to cement the left’s grip on the party machine.
Big and bitter battles lie ahead on policy. The likelihood is that Corbyn’s and John McDonnell’s economic prospectus will be the centrepiece of Labour’s manifesto, while they accept defeat on Trident.
I lost count of the number of MPs who asked me in Liverpool this week: “When will Theresa May call the election?” When I replied “2020”, their faces dropped. Some Corbyn critics are so desperate to remove him that they hope May will seek her own mandate next year, and are prepared to see Labour lose 50 seats if that forces him out. “The only route for us now is us to let the voters give their verdict on Jeremy,” one senior MP told me. Despite Corbyn’s uplifting words, this is a party in a sorry state.