Britain’s opposition Labour Party is in a panic as it nears the first round of its leadership election and the unashamed left-wing Jeremy Corbyn looks set to do very well, and may even top the polls. This totally unexpected surge has alarmed all the other candidates who take a much more centrist position, arguing that Labour’s resounding defeat in the general election was thanks to Ed Miliband’s drift to the left. Leading contenders like Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, as well as the younger Liz Kendal, are all in various ways seeking to get Labour back to the social democratic centre of British politics.
It is unfortunate that these tensions have caused the Labour Party election to become bitter and personal, which may harm Labour’s ability to work effectively in parliament. Miliband’s weird plan to open up the Labour Party with a new and much cheaper £3 (Dh17) membership-drive has allowed blatant entryism from far left groups like the Trotskyist Militant who would love to use the leadership election to vote in Corbyn and wreck Labour by splitting the party in revenge for Neil Kinnock’s determined work in driving them out in the 1980s and 1990s.
Britain needs a much better opposition than Labour seems capable of offering if these internal elections are anything to go by. The party needs to have a rational debate about its core policies and prepare to offer effective criticism of David Cameron’s Conservative government and take advantage of his small majority. Sadly, most candidates are struggling to raise themselves above the personal level and offer a coherent way forward.
