Labour has nothing to say to giant chunks of Britain, might nicely by no means win energy once more and is in truth an irrelevance to the politica
Labour has nothing to say to giant chunks of Britain, might nicely by no means win energy once more and is in truth an irrelevance to the political path of our nation.
Sure, sure, we all know all that already. However if you’re a political nerd, as I’m, you may’t knock a great management contest because it unfolds. And the present battle to change into Chief of the Opposition is shaping up quite properly.
Some had been writing it up as a procession, with former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer – he of the luxuriant hair and slippery means concurrently to undertaking himself each as a diehard socialist and a centre-left moderniser, the primary Kinnockite Corbynista – merely certain to win.
In spite of everything, a hitherto dominant laborious left couldn’t discover a stand-out candidate and ended up fielding the underwhelming Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey, regardless of the doubts of the left’s Godfather figures, reminiscent of John McDonnell.
However a ballot of celebration members performed by Survation for the influential Labour Record web site has quite scuppered this narrative. It confirmed Lengthy-Bailey on target to beat Starmer, albeit narrowly, with the opposite three contenders – Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry distant also-rans. The ballot served as a well timed reminder that the laborious left has gained virtually each inside election within the Labour celebration for the previous 5 years.
I had been a kind of those that doubted Lengthy-Bailey’s probabilities of successful, primarily as a result of she’s so colourless she may as nicely be a hologram of a water biscuit. However now I’m reassessing that preliminary judgment. Partly it’s because she has change into marginally extra fascinating, together with her Catholicism main her to depart from authorised leftist pondering on the difficulty of abortion. However primarily it’s as a result of she has a robust secret weapon within the type of her London flatmate Angela Rayner.
Rayner, it’s generally agreed, seems to be like she goes to win the deputy management by a landslide. The bookies have her as an enormous odds-on favorite. And he or she has backed Lengthy-Bailey for the management. Whereas not within the Phillips class for outrageous utterances, she nonetheless additionally has a sure frankness which works down nicely in modern left-wing circles. By projecting the concept of a joint ticket with Rayner, Lengthy-Bailey can go away the traditional, smoothie-chops, manufacturing line politico Starmer in a pickle. Assume Thelma & Louise remade as a British political liberation film.
The benefits for Lengthy-Bailey of sharing the stage together with her working mate are quite a few. First, she will be able to nudge practically everybody who intends to vote for Rayner as deputy, which is a lot of the celebration membership, into contemplating herself as their pure candidate for chief – the opposite half of the dream group.
Secondly, the concept of flatmates forming a partnership on the Labour helm is in itself eye-catching, lending itself to every kind of helpful ‘tender couch’ joint-interviews that may assist undertaking Lengthy-Bailey as a rounded determine or genial character: Who will get up first within the mornings? Who hogs the lavatory? Why did they resolve on Becky for the management and Angie for deputy?
Thirdly, in fact, there’s the outright feminist facet. Most Labour members agonise about having by no means elected a lady chief. The extra they’re triggered to ponder this anomaly, the lonelier and extra weak Starmer will appear. He’s not simply the one male candidate left on this race, he’s additionally a male candidate from central casting: a center class, center aged, southern, married, rich, heterosexual white male. Nul factors there from any of the various range juries inspecting the competition for causes to be offended.
Little doubt Thornberry, Nandy and Phillips will all make the purpose at hustings occasions that Labour’s failure ever to elect a lady chief is turning into an excruciating embarrassment. However in doing so they are going to unwittingly assist Lengthy-Bailey, proven by the polling to be the one lady who can doubtlessly beat Starmer.
The dynamics between Lengthy-Bailey and Rayner are in themselves fascinating. Each from working class, northern backgrounds, it was Lengthy-Bailey who took the extra standard, college path to skilled success, whereas Rayner the teenager mum ascended purely via commerce union activism.
Bolstered by Rayner’s extra assertive persona, I consider Lengthy-Bailey will have the ability to convey the concept of a dynamic duo who can take the struggle to the Previous Etonian Boris Johnson. If she campaigns astutely then the considered choosing Starmer, the most recent believable bloke, all booted and suited and useless sufficient to lick himself, will certainly change into quite miserable to a Labour selectorate itching to put in a feminine chief anyway.
As long as they don’t let complacency set in, that is excellent news for the Tories. As a result of if Lengthy-Bailey and Rayner do win the respective positions of chief and deputy chief, Labour will certainly be on target for one more defeat. Coverage-wise neither seems to have discovered something from Corbyn’s drubbing and each will simply preserve…