Wasn’t Labour ‘reckless’ in courting the DUP?
The moral outrage of many Labour MPS and supporters in response to the Conservative-dup deal has been something to behold.
Yvette Cooper warned that it could jeopardise the peace process. Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former press secretary, described it as “a sordid, dangerous and distasteful deal”. Shaun Woodward called it “reckless beyond belief ”.
This last remark is particularly fascinating, since that same Shaun Woodward was Labour Northern Ireland secretary in 2010, when
Gordon Brown sought a pact with the DUP to hold on to power after the election. Woodward got a special mention at the time in a US briefing paper to Hillary Clinton: “Shaun, for his part, is working on an economic package for Northern Ireland to win support from the DUP and other parties for Labour – a package to be proposed in the Queen’s Speech.” Was Woodward being “reckless beyond belief ” in 2010? His “economic package” doesn’t sound very different in principle to the bargain struck last week between the DUP and Theresa May – except that it didn’t come off. Only Caroline Flint, the Labour MP, struck an admirable note of
honesty: “Gordon Brown sought deals with the DUP. There’s lots of other reasons those deals won’t work for May.” Yet this has also been a rare chance to take a look at the rest of Labour’s policy in Northern Ireland.
Labour critiques of the DUP often single out its anti-abortion stance as especially appalling. This is, of course, the same anti-abortion policy as that held by the nationalist SDLP, Labour’s sister party in Northern Ireland, for decades. Not only have “women’s reproductive rights” not seemed a problem on that front, but Labour has long cited its special relationship with the SDLP as the reason why it wouldn’t let Labour Party members field candidates there. Today, there are 3,000 Labour Party members in Northern Ireland pleading for permission to stand in elections. But the party leadership still refuses.
So much for democratic representation, then, and so much for immutable values. Still, it’s good to know that the party’s capacity for Orwellian doublethink is very much alive and well.