Momentum falls flat ... but Labour insists it hasn’t hit ‘peak Corbyn’
Targeted campaigning and ‘unseat’ events fail to paint London red as promised by activists
LABOUR appeared to suffer a backlash against the party’s hard-left policies in the local elections with attempts by activists to “unseat” Tory town halls largely failing.
Jeremy Corbyn, the party leader, was forced to deny his support had reached “peak Corbyn” after Labour’s dramatic gains at the general election.
Labour was defending the most council seats – more than 2,200 of the 4,000 being contested – and had talked up its prospects in London, where it made gains in the 2017 snap poll.
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said Labour would “paint London red”, and Left-wing activists held so-called “unseat” rallies, many organised by Momentum, in areas such as in Barnet, where the Tories won control.
In Hillingdon – where John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, said Labour was on the “edge of a significant victory” – the Conservatives increased their majority.
The Tories kept control of the “crown jewel” authorities in London – Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth – all of which were the target of large-scale Labour campaigns.
Labour did pick up a seat in Kensington and Chelsea, but the Conservatives retained control, despite criticism over the Grenfell Tower disaster.
In Swindon – where one Tory councillor said Labour were “throwing the kitchen sink” at the local campaign – the Conservatives held on to control of the borough council.
In Plymouth – where an unseat event was cancelled due to spending limits – Labour won control from the Tories.
Chuka Umunna, the moderate Labour MP, called for an election “postmortem” to look at why expected gains had not materialised. Mr Umunna said the Government was “divided and incompetent” yet Labour had not seen “the big win in Wandsworth or Kensington that was expected”.
Visiting Wandsworth, Theresa May, the Prime Minister and Tory leader, mocked Labour for failing to win control of the council despite throwing everything at it.
She said: “Labour thought they could take control; this was one of their top targets and they threw everything at it, but they failed.” Labour said that tight results in four Wandsworth wards meant it missed victory by 141 votes.
In Plymouth, Mr Corbyn denied that the party’s momentum had stalled.
He said: “No, no. There’s much more to come and it’s going to get even better… winning Plymouth is a sign Labour is back in this part of Britain. Labour is back to gain parliamentary seats”.
Labour sources described the party’s results as “solid”, saying that it had consolidated advances made at the general election. Labour lost Nuneaton and Bedworth – a bellwether area that often indicates the colour of the Government – as well as Derby.
Labour also fell short of gaining control in areas like Dudley and Walsall, where it had hoped to establish middle England strongholds. Owen Jones, the Left-wing activist and Guardian columnist who attended many campaign events and publicised them on social media, put a brave face on the results.
He said: “Almost everywhere that Momentum held unseat campaign events Labour made gains – some big – and the Tories lost seats. That’s down to Momentum and non-momentum Labour activists. Campaigning works.”
Mr Jones attributed the Tories’ loss of Trafford council after 14 years to a campaigning day there by Momentum.
For Labour, the local elections had not gone entirely to plan. And, to Jeremy Corbyn’s most loyal supporters, it was clear where the blame lay. It was all down to the blatant anti-corbyn bias of the electorate. As yesterday wore on, however, one or two on the Left ventured to suggest that it was time to take a new approach to campaigning. For three solid years, they’d angrily denounced moderates within their own party as slugs, melts, traitors, warmongers, neoliberal scum and Red Tories. But perhaps, proposed leading Left-wing thinker Paul Mason, it might be worth trying a different tack. “To win swing seats in Midlands and S England,” he tweeted, “Labour needs to fight for centrist votes.”
It’s a radical idea. But how might the Corbynistas go about it?
* Explain that “centrist dad” is actually a compliment. Dads are great. Everyone loves their dad. Did you know that Labour has pledged to create FOUR new Fathers’ Days?
* Call on the Government to launch an urgent critical re-evaluation of 1990s Britpop also-rans Shed Seven, who – as Mr Corbyn has consistently made clear – are much better than Stormzy.
* Offer a compromise on foreign policy. Under a Corbyn premiership, centrist voters will be promised a minimum of one Middle Eastern bombing a year, although in deference to Mr Corbyn’s principles all missiles will be made of foam.
* Persuade Mr Corbyn to deliver a keynote speech announcing his plans to add #FBPE to his Twitter handle and vote Lib Dem to #Stopbrexit.
* Promise centrists that, if they pledge their support to Mr Corbyn, Momentum will absolutely, definitely, 100 per cent guarantee not to subject every single one of them to a show trial the day after he becomes prime minister.
Members of the National Rifle Association – America’s staunchest opponents of gun control – are holding their annual conference. Yesterday’s star speakers were Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence. Their visit seems to have gone off smoothly. But one thing puzzled me.
For some reason, no one entering the hall for their speeches was allowed to bring a gun.
I have to say, that sounds very risky. After all, as the NRA itself explains after each school shooting, banning guns is dangerous. In the words of NRA boss Wayne Lapierre: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Trump clearly agrees. In February he argued that school shootings could be prevented by arming teachers. To ban people from bringing guns to a Trump speech, therefore, represents a serious security risk. What if a bad guy with a gun had got in? All the good guys would have been unable to stop him. Next time Trump is due to give a speech, the NRA should hand out free guns to everyone within a 10-mile radius. Just to be on the safe side.
In both Britain and America, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers always go to number one. His latest, The Midnight Line, is at number one now. I’m happy for him. I love his books. The only trouble is: they’re ruining other thrillers for me.
The Reacher stories are mercilessly fast-paced, bursting with violence and written in brutally curt prose. From the very first page, the author seizes you by the lapels and doesn’t let go. Which is great. Except that he’s destroying my attention span. Now, when I try to read anyone else’s thrillers, I find my mind starting to wander. If there hasn’t been at least one murder, a kidnapping and a fight scene within the first three pages, I lose interest completely.
The other evening I picked up an Agatha Christie. I’d always liked Agatha Christie. But this time, after slogging my way through the opening two chapters, a voice in my head roared: “What the hell’s this? It’s just a load of old dears nattering about cake with the colonel! Where are the punch-ups? Where’s the torture? Why hasn’t Miss Marple headbutted anyone yet? And what are all these adjectives for? Lee Child doesn’t do adjectives! He barely even does verbs!”
Then again, after years of internet addiction, perhaps my attention span was doomed anyway. In which case, Mr Child is the perfect author for our times. The laureate of the Twitter age. The best thing about small children is their absolute sincerity. Nothing in the world is better than a small child talking total and unalloyed nonsense with an expression of deadly seriousness.
As I’ve mentioned here before, from time to time my four-year-old son will proudly tell me about a house he claims to own. He does it with an entirely straight face, and in vivid detail. I haven’t seen the house in person, because he’s never invited me or Mummy to visit, which is a pity, because it sounds like a remarkable place. According to him, the house is “round the corner, far away”, has “a tall roof ”, and inside the garage is “a double-decker car”. The only problem is he can’t turn the lights on, because owing to a mysterious architectural oversight “the switch is on the ceiling”. Oh, and one of the windows is broken, because “a naughty person fired a snowball at it with a cannon”.
The other day he provided me with a further update. At his house, he said, he’s got a special TV which shows the films “Despicable Me 6, 7, 9 and 12”. Which is quite a coup, given that cinemas haven’t even shown Despicable Me 4 yet.
Still, that isn’t the most unusual thing about his house. I asked him how many rooms it has.
“One,” he said simply. “And it has two stairs.”
“Hang on,” I said. “Two flights of stairs? If your house has only got one room, what are the two flights of stairs for?”
He looked at me as if it was the stupidest question he’d ever heard.
“One for going up,” he said, “and one for going down.”