Labour won the election in 2024 on just 33.7 per cent of the vote – a beneficiary of the deep disdain for the Tories at the time. Now Labour is polling at just 20 per cent – and the Government is even more unpopular than Rishi Sunak’s was at the time of the last election.
The messy and uncomfortable departure of Angela Rayner heralded an opportunity for party members and affiliated trade unions to have an avenue for influence. But in closing nominations by Thursday, this week, the Labour leadership is putting its head in the sand – hiding from a much-needed debate about the party’s direction, its culture and its policies.
Instead, though, Labour’s NEC is set to give MPs only until Thursday to make nominations for deputy leader, making it difficult for anyone but the leadership’s chosen candidate to organise the 80 nominations needed – and removing any formal opportunity for party members to influence MPs’ choice of nomination.
The frustration over these repeated failures has led to a group of centre-left figures forming a new group called Mainstream, led by Andy Burnham and backed by the think-tank Compass. Burnham has emphasised the need for “a more inclusive, less factional way of running the party”.
There are half a dozen MPs who were elected as Labour candidates but are currently without the party whip after rebelling – they will be locked out of this debate. Burnham is right to raise questions about factionalism within the party and his plea for a return to a more pluralist politics is correct, but the debate must be about more than internal arguments. It is the policies that have been Labour’s self-inflicted Achilles heel.
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What people do care about is whether the government is cutting pensioners’ winter fuel payments or people’s disability benefits. Many lifelong Labour voters are deeply exercised by Gaza and the erosion of the right to protest. The failure to address the cost of living crisis by scrapping the two-child limit, bringing in rent controls or capping bills is a critical issue for millions of households. It’s the policies that need a reset, not the personnel.
And the situation is only going to get worse, because voters have got somewhere else to go. A bolder and more dynamic Green Party under Zack Polanski is a huge threat to Labour’s vote, as – if it gets its act together – is the new party being launched by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
In June, Labour MPs won a significant victory when they forced the leadership to reverse their proposed cuts to personal independence payments.
Now, they have to use their power to ensure the party grassroots get a real choice – and a real debate about its future. There may not be one without it.
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