More positions than the Kama Sutra - and not up to the job

I MAKE no apology for being one of the first Labour MPs to say Jeremy Corbyn is not remotely up to the job of leading my party back to power. That is still my view. When Labour MPs surveyed the three mainstream candidates at the start of the contest, most whispered to one another ‘none of the above’.

‘I am ready,’ said Andy. ‘I am a fresh start,’ said Liz. ‘I have the strength to win,’ said Yvette. Not exactly ‘once more unto the breach,’ is it? So we sat on our hands. Into the void rode Jeremy. The miracle man was here. Having uttered barely a word on economic policy in 32 years in Parliament, he now had the economic salvation for the world with ‘people’s quantitative easing’ – whatever that is.

In the Dog and Duck, they could understand his words. Nationalise the railways. Alf and Bert could agree with that – sounds reasonable enough. Stop austerity. Samantha and Craig can smell a pay rise for themselves here.

Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t like war, he wears sweaters and he has got a beard. A Labour Party led by Corbyn will lack any credibility as a potential government. But it won’t lack policy positions: it will have more positions than the Kama Sutra.

Jeremy Corbyn does not represent the values of this country or of the Labour Party.

But the timidity of the recent generation of Labour leaders inhibits people from being prepared to say what they think and be confident in expressing their beliefs. This must change. Unlike Corbyn, the mainstream Labour Party does not believe in ducking our international responsibilities, it would never offer succour to terrorist groups and it is perfectly comfortable with private enterprise. But it must start talking in everyday language.

We need to see politics as a vocation, not a career and assert our principles and values.

I respect the verdict of the Labour leadership election, however flawed it may have been.

But from now on, though, it must be payment by results.

If Corbyn breathes new life into Labour in the Scottish elections next year, delivers a crushing victory for us in Wales and improves our position in England, he will have earned the right to lead us into the next General Election. But if he fails to do that, my party must act.

We cannot – Labour MPs as well as party members – sit on our hands once more if it turns out that we have indeed elected the wrong leader. If nothing else, May 7, when Ed Miliband was comprehensively beaten by David Cameron, has taught us a bitter lesson: that if our party goes into a General Election with the wrong leader, it is possible to lose – no matter how seemingly unpopular the Tories may be.

Principles matter to my Nottinghamshire constituents.

But one thing matters more: the ability to put Labour principles into practice in government.