Stalinist storm engulfs Labour
Moderates appalled as leadership favourite Rebecca Long Bailey hires man who wore a badge joking about Trotsky’s assassination with an ice pick as her campaign chief
LABOUR will never again win power if Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Stalinist-backed’ favourite Rebecca Long Bailey becomes the next leader, party moderates warned last night.
They said Labour would condemn itself to ‘political oblivion’ if members chose Ms Long Bailey, 40, to succeed Mr Corbyn. The dire predictions came after the Shadow Business Secretary appeared to confirm her status as the darling of hard-Left activists by picking ‘self-proclaimed’ Stalinist Alex Halligan to help run her campaign.
The Momentum organiser is credited with a key role in getting Mr Corbyn elected as party leader in 2015. Two years ago Mr Halligan was pictured wearing a badge with the slogan ‘Good Night Trotskyite’ and a silhouette of a man attacking another with an ice pick – a reference to the assassination in 1940 of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky on the orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Some Labour insiders claimed that choosing Mr Halligan was so controversial that it has led to a decision by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, one of Ms Long Bailey’s most powerful champions, not to get involved in her leadership bid.
Last night, Bermondsey MP Neil Coyle told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If voters think Labour have replaced Corbyn with a clone or simply want to offer the same overwhelmingly rejected package, the very real risk is that Labour will never be in Government again.’
Another moderate Labour MP said privately: ‘For Long Bailey to hire a Stalinist would confirm all our worst fears and show she – and the people around her – haven’t learnt the lesson from our cataclysmic Election defeat on December 12. If the party picks her, we’ll be condemning ourselves to firstly, being locked out of power and secondly, political oblivion. The Labour Party as it is just won’t exist in ten years.’
But allies of Ms Long Bailey, who has yet to declare officially that she will stand as party leader, dismissed the claims as ‘total nonsense’ and insisted that despite Labour’s Election defeat, it had to stay true to the socialist principles and policies championed by Mr Corbyn.
Ms Long Bailey is favourite to take over due to her appeal to grassroots party members and because she is understood to have teamed up with Angela Rayner, Labour’s high-profile schools spokesman, who is running for deputy leader.
To the dismay of rivals, docker’s daughter Ms Long Bailey would meet demands by many members for their next leader to be a woman in a Northern English constituency.
But Ms Long Bailey is likely to face tough competition from ‘soft Left’ Lisa Nandy, another North West of England MP, and the party moderates’ favourite, Birmingham MP Jess Phillips – praised by one London MP yesterday as the one anti-Corbyn MP who could appeal to Labour’s mass membership.
But grandee Margaret Beckett says she will back Labour Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer, who is expected to launch his leadership campaign in the New Year despite anger that his Remain stance led to Labour haemorrhaging seats in its so-called ‘red wall’ in the North of England and Midlands.
Ms Long Bailey yesterday refused to comment on her campaign team, with sources close to Mr Halligan insisting on Twitter he was ‘not a Stalinist’ and was not running Ms Long Bailey’s campaign.
A spokesman for Mr McDonnell said last night that the Shadow Chancellor had made ‘a conscious decision to have no involvement in the leadership election’.
The spokesman declined to comment on reports that Mr McDonnell – a vocal champion of Ms Long Bailey as leader – had privately met with Momentum activists last week to urge them to get behind her campaign.
There were also reports last night that key party official Karie Murphy, Mr Corbyn’s ex-chief of staff, was moving behind arch-Corbynista and Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon in his expected battle to become deputy party leader – in opposition to Ms Rayner. The Mail on Sunday understands that at last week’s Shadow Cabinet, Ms Rayner openly challenged Mr Corbyn over
‘We’ll be condemned to political oblivion’
plans to make party workers redundant in the wake of the disastrous Election defeat. Sources say that after Mr Corbyn told the Shadow Cabinet that Labour had to ‘redouble our efforts’ to challenge the Tory Government, Ms Rayner complained: ‘That’s right, Jeremy, but our staff to help us do that are being taken away.’
Many Labour MPs are furious party bosses are pressing ahead with staff cuts while leaving Ms Murphy, who helped run the disastrous Election campaign, and party
‘The architects of our disaster haven’t gone’
strategy director Seumas Milne inpost on respective salaries of £90,000 and £100,000. The MoS reported a year ago that Ms Murphy, of Glasgow, and Mr Milne were due to have their contracts changed from ones fixed to Mr Corbyn’s tenure to being directly and permanently employed by the party.
One Shadow Cabinet member said last night: ‘Rank-and-file staff are being let go when two of the architects of our Election disaster don’t seem to go anywhere. Just think of how many of those blameless staff we could keep if we got rid of Karie and Seumas.’
However, insiders have warned of a possible ‘hefty compensation bill’ if the two key aides were forced out. Even so, outraged party staff facing the axe are said to be considering strike action.