CAMPAIGN REWROTE THE RULES
LAST SUMMER the idea of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sweeping into 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister briefly became a genuine prospect. Theresa May’s gamble of increasing the Conservatives’ majority had failed, leaving Britain with a hung Parliament.
Since then the has largely been restored – May is still in office, bold enough to approve UK military action in Syria, Brexit negotiations continue unabated and the Tories are capable of winning Commons votes thanks to a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.
But a member of Corbyn’s inner circle argues the June 2017 poll still marked a huge turning point for Labour and changed the face of politics. Steve Howell – who spent 20 years in Sheffield, first as a student, then as a trade unionist, campaigner and council officer – was Labour’s deputy director of strategy and communications during the snap election last year. He was involved in the key decisions, and tells all in a new book called
“I strongly felt there was a story to be told,” says Steve, who offers a first-hand account of the twists and turns involved in steering a modern campaign.
“This was a very unusual election. It was unusual for someone who was so far behind to close the gap in the way Jeremy did. There were two major terrorist attacks in the middle of it which led to a suspension of campaigning, and we broke convention in a number of ways. We used social media far more than previously, and Jeremy did more big rallies. He was on the road nearly all the time. And we defied conventional wisdom right from the outset – we weren’t going to run away from any issues, no question was too difficult for us to face directly.”
It’s true the Conservatives made a calamitous miscalculation. Labour made 30 gains, including Sheffield Hallam, and increased its share of the vote by the party’s biggest amount since 1945. Steve was jubilant, and attributes the outcome to the elusive ‘Corbyn factor’.
“There was evidence that showed people liked his authenticity and integrity, and the fact he went against the grain. What a lot of the pundits hadn’t really digested was what they were being told by the electorate in the EU referendum – that they don’t trust mainstream politicians. Every major party was pro-remain and the electorate voted against. Jeremy had quite a distinct position; he was critical of the EU, but still pro-remain. Had the remain campaigners listened more to Jeremy, the result might have been different.”
Steve was born in 1954 near Liverpool. Much of his upbringing, however, was in North London, where he attended a grammar school. His school friend Peter Mandelson – one of the architects of New Labour – followed the Oxbridge path, but Steve had his heart set on studying in the North.
“I didn’t know much about Sheffield, but I went up on a visit and just fell in love with the place. The people were so friendly.” He took a degree in economic history at Sheffield University, graduating in 1977. But the city gave him an education in another sense.
“Since my early teens I’d been a bit of a radical and on the left. What Sheffield introduced me to was real, down-toearth, working class politics, which I’d never experienced at all. I met some of the most wonderful people who have become lifelong friends. I know ‘salt of the earth’ is a cliche but they were.”
Steve also met Kim, his ‘soulmate’ and wife of 40 years, at the university while collecting money for striking steelworkers. He later worked on the shop floor at Firth Browns for three years where he was nicknamed the ‘posh shop steward’.
Redundancy struck, though, during the cutbacks of the early 1980s. “That was another learning experience, I was going in with men a lot older than me who were being told they were going to be made redundant. They had no hope for the future and were breaking down in tears. It was a very tough time. That’s something you never forget.”
He had been heavily involved in setting up the Sheffield Campaign Against Racism in the late 1970s, a ‘very successful, broad-based’ effort. “I don’t think any other city had anything quite like it. It brought together the ethnic minority groups, the black and Asian community, all the main churches, Labour, Liberals, unions, communists. It was effective in keeping the influence of the National Front out of Sheffield.”
From 1986 he was Sheffield Council’s international officer. His main job was acting as secretary of Local Authorities Against Apartheid, which Sheffield chaired. Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 meant his post was no longer needed, so he joined the Press office before carving out a career in journalism and founding Freshwater, a PR consultancy.
He later joined the Labour team as second in command to Seumas Milne. He had barely been cleared for a parliamentary pass when the election was called. then, arrives as the first in-depth account by any of Corbyn’s confidants about the events of 2017.
That Labour lost the General Election is an incontrovertible fact. So is Steve’s book a piece of spin – and are supporters merely celebrating failure?
“There are some people within Labour who will never reconcile themselves to Jeremy Corbyn as a leader and who’ll never be happy until they see him gone. But the vast majority of members, MPs and activists were delighted with the outcome. They realised how hard it was to go from where we were in the polls to where we ended up.”
Steve, who stood down as deputy director in September, has been watching “with a heavy heart’ as the controversy over allegations of antisemitism in Labour has played out. The crisis deepened when it emerged Corbyn had posted a comment on Facebook in 2012 querying the removal of a mural that depicted Jewish financiers controlling the world. “I know Jeremy is a very decent human being. He has fought all his life against racism and is not anti-semitic. He was obviously caught out not looking at that mural and just assumed it was an issue of artistic freedom. I’m sure he feels utterly devastated, it’s the last thing on Earth he’d want to promote.”
Equally, what does Steve think can be learned from Jared O’Mara’s victory in Sheffield Hallam? The new MP swiftly had the whip withdrawn amid accusations of homophobia and sexism. “Because it was a snap election, the process of selecting candidates was not very satisfactory. Jeremy has said he would not allow again a situation where the members had so little influence.”
Candidates are already being picked in target seats well in advance ‘through a proper process’. Steve is unsure whether he’d return to a similar role, as Labour now has a lot of ‘talented, committed young people’ – but he wouldn’t rule it out. “Never say never.”
Richard Blackledge