Politics of hate seeping into Westminster
ERHAPS Ms Pidcock and her Corbynite colleagues are unaware that crossparty friendships have long been a feature of parliamentary life even for some of their Left-wing heroes of the past. Socialist firebrand Tony Benn, an inspirational figure for Mr Corbyn and his allies, was close to the outspoken Right-winger Enoch Powell. Both MPs were drawn together by their deep dislike of the European Community and their reverence for parliamentary democracy. When asked by Labour colleagues why he attended Powell’s funeral, Mr Benn replied: “He was my friend.”
Their relationship demonstrated that what is best for the country can frequently cut across the tribal divisions thrown up by party politics.
Margaret Thatcher enjoyed amicable relations with her Labour opposite Michael Foot in the early 1980s in spite of the gulf between their political views.
In more recent times, former Tory Chancellor George Osborne struck up a friendship with his Labour shadow Ed Balls that belied their clownish banter across the House of Commons.
Tory MPs tend to be bemused and saddened by the venom directed against them from the Left. “We think that socialists are wellmeaning but wrong whereas the Left think we are evil,” one backbencher told me. When the Labour minister Aneurin Bevan denounced the Tories as “lower than vermin” in the late 1940s, some responded by setting up a light-hearted “Vermin Club”. Today’s Tories will be challenged to respond with similar good humour.
LABOUR’S hard-Left MPs are likely to swiftly learn that their own tribe is hardly full of sweet comradeship. The toxic rift over Mr Corbyn’s leadership is intensifying as the party’s autumn conference approaches. It emerged this week that elements in Unite, Labour’s biggest union backer, are on manoeuvres and are backing the Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry as a potential replacement for the party’s leader.
Some Labour moderates have still not discounted the possibility of a breakaway party if the hard-Left’s grip cannot be eased by other means. For all the smugness in Labour ranks about the election, the party remains on the brink of open civil war.
Labour is in a fragile state in a volatile hung Parliament where both the main parties are split over Europe. Ms Pidcock and her comrades would do well to remember the old adage that, at Westminster, those on the opposite benches are your opponents – your real enemies are on your own side.