The man who could kill off British Labour Party
One has to pity the British Labour Party — even its own MPs know it is about to be routed at a general election. The only question is how bad.
The popular tabloid Sun said the election would “kill off” Labour and the latest opinion polls show the party is on track to repeat a showing of its 1983 performance when leader Michael Foot was hammered by the Conservative forces of Margaret Thatcher.
In the House of Commons Wednesday, Labour MP David Winnick warned — not too forcefully, it must be said — that the Tories should not be complacent about winning a landslide. Hopefully, he said, they wouldn’t “receive such a large majority.”
Winnick stands to lose his seat if the polls prove even slightly correct, so he can be forgiven for being a bit downhearted.
But why this gloomy spirit in the Labour Party? Stand up, leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Tory leader Theresa May may have positioned the forthcoming general election — called three years earlier than she had to — about getting a stronger mandate for negotiating Brexit, but there can be little doubt it’s also about taking advantage of the internal war inside the Labour Party over its leftwing leader.
“Let us all be very, very honest and clear about this: She has chosen this election because she looked across the dispatch box and she could not resist the temptation of doing the political equivalent of taking candy from a baby and facing a Labour Party in a general election,” said Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron in Parliament Wednesday.
May didn’t deny it. She dismissed Corbyn as “simply not fit to lead,” and when asked a question by any Labour MP kept referring to the fact most of them didn’t think Corbyn should be their leader.
Most of them don’t. Last year, after Britain voted to leave the European Union — with Labour incensed at Corbyn’s lacklustre campaign in support of the Remain camp — MPs wanted to oust him. He lost a no-confidence motion among his own MPs by 172-40 and there was a mass resignation of his leadership team.
But Corbyn refused to go and because the leader is chosen by Labour Party members who consistently back him, he retained the leadership.
The Labour rank-andfile are enamoured of the 67-year-old, thrice-married Corbyn, who has been described as everything from radical left-wing to Bolshevik and has often courted controversy.
In the late 1980s he stood in silence at an event for eight IRA gunmen shot dead, yet in 2015 he refused to sing God Save the Queen at a First World War memorial ceremony. He has voiced support for former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, urged a boycott of Israeli goods, and vehemently opposed the Iraq war. He is something of a Labour rebel, having defied the party whip 500 times since 2001.
In many ways his policies are seen as typically Labour — tax the rich, strengthen trade unions, ban nuclear missiles and replace the House of Lords.
Asked Wednesday if he would resign if the result was bad, Corbyn said, “We are campaigning to win this election, that’s the only question now.”
How bad could it be? The Tories have 330 seats to Labour’s 229 and hold a majority of 17. If the polls are correct, the election would see the Tories winning 375 seats with a 100-seat majority.
MPs voted 522 to 13 Wednesday to back May’s call for an election and already some Labour lawmakers are quitting.
Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop has said he will not contest the June 8 election because of Corbyn.
“I have made no secret about my significant and irreconcilable differences with the current Labour leadership. It is because of these differences that I feel I cannot, in good faith, stand as the Labour candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland,” Blenkinsop said, according to The Daily Telegraph.
While Labour may be demoralized and divided under Corbyn’s leadership, it doesn’t look like he is going anywhere.
The words of Chris Mullin, a former Labour minister writing after the referendum result last year, look increasingly prophetic. He wrote, “One way or another, Jeremy needs to be replaced by someone capable of offering strong leadership in both the party and the country. Labour needs to get its act together and fast. Failure to do so risks not merely defeat, but annihilation.”
THE POLITICAL EQUIVALENT OF TAKING CANDY FROM A BABY.