Jeremy Corbyn was always going to win the Labour leadership in Britain. This is an age of confident political predictions that are repeatedly proven to be unwise, but this was an outcome that was never in serious doubt. Yet it is difficult to think of a greater defiance of political odds in modern times. The nearest competitor? Corbyn’s last election win.
In the last year, Corbyn’s leadership has been battered by the most relentless and extreme media campaign against a mainstream politician in modern British history. Labour MPs attempted to turf him out of his office in a botched coup at a time of national crisis, and 172 members of the parliamentary Labour party voted no-confidence in his leadership.
A leadership team that had no expectation of winning last year has made repeated and undeniable mistakes in communication and strategy. And yet, not only has Labour grown into perhaps Europe’s biggest political party, but Corbyn has been granted an electoral mandate even greater than his overwhelming victory a year ago. Last year, he won 59.5 per cent of the vote. This time, he won almost 62 per cent among an even larger selectorate.
After his victory last year, Corbyn’s acceptance speech was criticised for having little to say about reaching out to the country as a whole. Not this time. He was passionate in his calls for unity: “We’re part of the same Labour family,” as he put it. No retribution, no bitterness. He made it clear that Labour was in it to win it, would take it to the Tories and focus on developing a compelling alternative. He looked like a leader. Corbyn Mark II must carry on as it started.
When Corbyn won last year, I wrote that his victory “was the easy bit”. That is as much of an understatement this time round as it was then. The labour movement now brims with anger, mutual distrust and looming internecine warfare. The most hardened anti-Corbyn and pro-Corbyn factions are united by one belief: That they are in a war not of attrition but of annihilation, that if they do not prevail they will be destroyed.
But the anger goes much further than the most passionate fringes. A large chunk of the Labour membership believe that MPs and the party hierarchy have declared war on them, have contempt for their democratic decisions and want them driven out forever. Many of the MPs fear they have been swamped by people who lack loyalty to the party. If this fury is unchecked, then Labour will implode as a political force.
Hope for the future lies with critical friends of the Labour leadership. They will be attacked by all sides. The uncompromising anti-Corbyn wing will see them as naive accomplices of electoral oblivion. The most ardent leadership loyalists will see them as naive capitulators to saboteurs who will never accept a left-led Labour party. In such a polarised atmosphere, nuance is regarded as flip-flopping, fence-sitting, standing in the middle of the road and being hit by traffic in both directions, to paraphrase Nye Bevan. But whatever derision they face, critical friends are pivotal to both the survival and success of the left in general, and Labour in particular.
Setting out a clear vision
Critical friends will expect this of the parliamentary Labour party: That they should both accept and respect the second overwhelming democratic mandate granted by a mass membership in the space of a year. No undermining, no sabotage. That doesn’t mean shutting up about disagreements and lying to their own consciences. But it is possible to express dissent in a way that doesn’t inflict serious political damage. MPs should accept more democratic involvement by a mass membership they should see as an opportunity, not a threat. They should acknowledge that investment not cuts, tax justice, public ownership and a foreign policy that prioritises peace are now cornerstones of Labour party policy. If Labour is heading for calamitous defeat, then Corbyn’s opponents need the leadership to own what happens: If they plot against the leadership, they risk being blamed. Corbyn’s most ideological opponents should also take time to reflect on their own failures. Lacking a coherent and inspiring vision, they left a vacuum and are furious it was filled. When New Labour triumphed in 1997, social democrats were on the march across western Europe. Today, the German social democrats — whose leader promotes Blair-type third way politics — hover between 18 per cent and 22 per cent in the opinion polls. Spain’s social democrats have a telegenic leader but haemorrhage support to the radical Left. If Labour’s Right had an obvious route-map to power, they would not been in such a parlous state.
But critical friends must put demands and pressure on the Labour leadership, too. Given both their renewed mandate and the fury of much of the grass roots at the summer’s events, it would be easy not to reach out. The appetite among many Labour members for mandatory reselection is real but must be resisted — it would simply destabilise the party. Corbyn and John McDonnell are currently passionately emphasising unity: that’s exactly the tack to take. If the most militant anti-Corbynistas publicly attempt to undermine the leadership, ensure they always look like the unreasonable ones. With the leadership battle over, intra-party disputes need to be relegated to the burning priority of winning over the electorate. Issues that unite the party should be emphasised: See how Corbyn put British Prime Minister Theresa May on the backfoot over secondary moderns. Mistakes made last year were understandable, given the lack of preparation for a leadership victory that seemed unlikely. Those excuses are now gone. The leadership need to set out a clear, coherent vision that reaches beyond their passionate supporters. What exactly is Corbyn’s project? What sort of country does Labour aspire to build, and how? How could he unite a country divided by the European Union referendum? These questions need clear answers. The media strategy has often been lacking: that means prioritising the broadcast media, which is, after all, where most people get their news about politics. Older people are increasingly turning away from Labour: Winning them back is an existential challenge. Self-employed people will soon eclipse public sector workers in number: they need answers. The traditional Labour coalition is divided over both immigration and the EU: Those divisions need resolution. Labour’s mass membership has so much potential, but there needs to be a strategy to mobilise them to go into communities and reach the unconvinced.
Given the barrage of attacks the leadership has faced, the most passionate Corbyn supporters are infuriated by any criticism. But blind, uncritical cheerleading will undermine the leadership. Critical friends are critical not because they want the Left to fail — they are desperate for the Left to succeed. Ignoring challenges and problems, and pretending when things go wrong that it is always the media and the PLP to blame, will lead to terrible defeat. Critical friends should cheer on the leadership when they get it right, challenge attacks on the leadership when they are unreasonable (or worse), and criticise the leadership when they get it wrong. There is nothing more more disloyal to the left than not saying uncomfortable things that have to be confronted if the left is going to succeed.
The 300,000 people who voted for Corbyn are ecstatic at his victory. Let’s put that enthusiasm behind an inspiring, coherent, credible vision — and maybe, just maybe, a Britain run in the interests of the majority can be built.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
Owen Jones is a columnist and the author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class and The Establishment — And How They Get Away With It.
