Labour’s internal struggle

LABOUR’S campaign saw fur coats and fur flying. But despite televised showdowns, internal party rows and endless photoopportunities, just days before the vote the party’s deputy leader admitted huge numbers of its traditional voters were unsure even where it stood.

Labour MPs agreed that many others planned to oppose the party they had always supported and vote to leave the EU.

Even in its final rally Labour was appealing to its own voters.

Labour politicians pleaded with people not to use the referendum to hit out over immigration or at the Conservative Government.

The pleas were not just about Europe. Many Labour insiders fear a break with their voters on scale unprecedented in England and Wales. And they are terrified that shift could trigger a Ukip surge similar to that experienced by the SNP after the independence referendum.

Polls suggest the EU vote could be won or lost on the votes of Labour voters south of the Border. The party was alive to the danger and out of the blocks early. Alan Johnson, the charismatic former home secretary, was appointed to lead the Labour In campaign last summer by then acting leader Harriet Harman.

Within months veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn would take over as Labour leader.

His internal critics accuse him of running a half-hearted campaign because of his own qualms about the EU.

Others say the Islington MP already alienates the kind of working-class northern heartland voter worried about immigration for whom a Brexit is so attractive.

He provoked a furious row when he dressed up in a fur coat for the Channel 4 programme The Last Leg and said he would rate the EU seven out of 10. But his supporters say he has done everything asked of the campaign.

And they argue that his message, that he is “no lover” of the EU but that staying in is best for jobs and working conditions resonates with people.

A fortnight ago, however, it appeared the Labour effort was not good enough.

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, admitted four in 10 of the party’s supporters did not even know its stance on the EU.

Labour MPs also conceded privately they wanted to give up campaigning, fearful over the long-term repercussions for their party. One English Labour MP said: “We’re being encouraged to go and have a fight with our voters on the doorstep – which will fail to persuade them not to vote Leave – and then we are expected to go back later and say ‘oh, by the way, you are still going to vote Labour, aren’t you?”

David Cameron agreed to retreat from the limelight to allow more room for Labour to gets its message across. When polls suggested that was still failing to win over supporters, a group of Labour MPs moved on immigration.

Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls suggested in a newspaper article the EU needed to reform its migration laws. The next day Mr Watson speculated a future Labour government could even seek to abolish the automatic right of EU citizens to work in the UK.

Within hours Mr Corbyn publicly trashed the idea.

And days later the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox moved the debate away from immigration, at least for a period.

There have been other Labour

‘‘ Many had no good information about which of their voters were Remain and which were Leave

voices. Labour’s Angela Eagle had one of the best lines of the televised debates telling Boris Johnson to “get that lie off your bus” over Leave’s NHS claims.

Also making his mark was former prime minister Gordon Brown, credited by some as the man who kept Scotland in the UK two years ago. Although the number of Labour MPs who came out as Leave were small, they were formidable.

German-born Gisela Stuart articulated her case patiently and reasonably. Another, John Mann, praised Mr Corbyn’s campaign as purposefully lacklustre suggesting he was in touch with Labour voters. But by voting day Labour MPs faced a dilemma.

Many had no good information about which of their voters were Remain and which were Leave.

If they knocked doors to encourage people to visit polling stations they risked increasing the Out vote. And so even Labour’s “get out the vote” operation was unable to be as forceful as it might have been in this campaign.