Every time I
feel like this car crash can’t get any worse, somehow the wreckage of the
labour party reverses away from the wall, only to smash full speed back into it. This week has been the most unedifying
spectacle and it breaks my heart knowing how hard activists, MPs and the party
as a whole have worked these last few weeks. We’ve seen experienced members of
the cabinet resign from all wings of the party, from the left wing, such as Lisa
Nandy and Kate Green, to Hillary Benn and Charlie Falconer on the right. Sections
of the membership continue to attack MPs in the most disgraceful of ways, from
vile abuse to the standard “Blairite war mongerer” dig directed at everyone
regardless of their views or history. Never mind how did we get here, how do we get out?
Corbyn’s
leadership was always going to be rocky, given both his history with the press
and how he began his leadership by picking them for his first target. I don’t
disagree that they’ve been awful to him, and they have been ridiculous from the
start, but it was always going to be that way. To continue picking fight after
fight with them was never going to help get his important message across. In
the same theme neither were the constant communication own goals we have seen
leading to an impression of not just chaos, but sheer incompetence. Everyone can make a mistake but only a fool
repeats the same actions expecting a different outcome. This has to end or the
party will disappear and the country will be left dangerously vulnerable to a
hard right conservative party unbound by European regulations.
Let me make this
clear, I did not vote for Jeremy, but I sympathise with those who did and even
more so with those such as Angela Eagle who literally gave it all they had in
the hope of making it work. I too wanted to make it work, but seeing her so
broken on national television made my heart ache. And this is not the first
time she has been treated terribly. Too often we have seen Angela fronting the
media when labour is in crisis after crisis, usually not of her own making. Not
only this but too often announcements have been made without communication,
leaving people like her tirelessly slogging it out in the media only to be undermined
live on air about an announcement Corbyns team have made off the cuff, that the
shadow cabinet have not been consulted about. It’s not how to manage a team in
and it’s not how to run a government. It’s just disrespectful.
There have been
some great electoral successes and some of McDonnell’s ideas about private
sector right to buy have been just the sort of new thinking we need. The
victories of Sadiq Khan, Jim Mcmahon and the metropolitan mayoral contests are
great successes we should be proud of. But it isn’t enough. We are not seeing
enough signs of labour moving into new seats outside of the big cities. Worse
still, we’re seeing UKIP encroach all over our northern heartlands. Not only is
UKIP now second in countless northern seats, but they straight beat us in the
referendum. As a proud person from Hull this send chills down my spine. If what
happened to labour in Scotland happens in these seats then we are toast. The
decision to leave the European Union potentially affects these seats most, as I
have written about before, and so the decision really is as devastating as I am
trying to make out. If this doesn’t worry you, then I fear that you are not
really Labour. Labour is not about wearing a badge of your socialist purity, “old
labour” values or whatever other name people are ascribing to, it’s about
making an actual difference and doing the best you can for our communities.
This back and forth war between
Jeremy and the press, Jeremy and the right of the party and now Jeremy and all
wings on the Parliamentary Labour party has to stop. New polling has now shown what I feared would
happen and a majority of 2015 labour voters now want him to step down. Not only
this, but anecdotally even amongst friends who joined the labour party because
of him, he is becoming a figure of ridicule. The labour party is not about one person;
it’s about a cause and seeking electoral power to fulfil that cause. If the
increasing evidence, and there is more than just the recent polling, continues
then Jeremy is clearly not the right person. Jeremy is a nice, charming person,
but he isn’t cutting through.
I know many have shouted me down
when I raise this point. Without question they ask “what is the point in power
if you get there with a right wing Blairite agenda?” And I would agree if that
were the case that anyone was proposing a right wing agenda, but they’re not. I
think that you really don’t know the parliamentary labour party if you’re
willing to believe that caricature. When Jo Cox died we all agreed how
inspiring her work was. But to believe that she is unique and that no other MPs
work as tirelessly for labour values is just obscene. Either you don’t know
much about our elected members of parliament or you chose not to because it
challenges your views. I have met several Members of Parliament and the people
who work for them. They work ridiculous hours, believe passionately in their
causes and put up with being treated like punch bags from people on all sides.
And they don’t deserve it.
I have my favourites to replace him,
but that is for another discussion. What is important is that he and his
supporters are given space to consider his position without it being as confrontational as it is now. I am not attacking you
because of his or your views, I respect them and largely agree. This is about being able
to lead, communicate with the country and run a team and campaign properly. So I ask,
please, Jeremy. For the sake of us all. Just go.
