Tom Watson resigning as Labour’s Deputy Leader is not a rallying call to leave Labour – it’s a rallying call to fight for Labour’s survival, for its heart & soul.

The last thing I expected on Wednesday night whilst scrolling through Twitter was to see the resignation of Tom Watson, the Labour MP and Deputy Leader of The Labour Party. Tom wasn’t just Labour’s Deputy Leader, he was Labour’s leader in all but name. He provided leadership on Labour’s institutional antisemitism crisis, on Brexit, campaigned passionately on public health & obesity issues, on gambling reform – and of course, he took on aggressive and exploitative media barons. Carrying on for four years through internal battles with Labour’s aggressive and unsympathetic hard-left who have spent the last four years hurling abuse & threats at him and those who share his politics in the name of so-called ‘Socialism’. He was a standard-bearer for the progressive & mainstream politics that we wish to see enacted in a Labour government. He kept that politics and those Labour values alive for those of us who look at this once great party and despair in horror at what it has become.
I was born in 1998, a true child of the Blair & Brown governments, so I know what it was like to live under a progressive Labour government, and I then found out what it was like to grow up under an austerity fuelled, regressive coalition government under the Conservatives & Liberal Democrat’s. Tom was a principled pragmatist (something which can sometimes be at war with its self), he believed Blair would not be able to deliver a fourth victory for Labour and organised for the eventual disposal of Blair as Labour’s leader, paving the way for Brown to lead our party & country through the global financial crash and eventually lead Labour into a saddening defeat in 2010. We will never know whether Tom was right about Blair, we will never know if Blair might have been the one to win us an election in 2010, but Tom was a mover & shaker, if he believed in something, he did it. If he didn’t like something, he campaigned for change – some may call this arrogance, and perhaps they are right, but I would call it courage & determination in the face of the unknown and adversity. Nearly everyone I speak to about Tom will tell me what an inspiration he was to them, how he encouraged them to stand for election, how he was there for them in times of immense personal difficulties, as moderates & progressives in Labour are slowly hollowed out of Labour, I worry that the human decency he embodied will become a scarce commodity in not just my party, but across politics.
The direction in which our party has and continues to travel towards is frightening – I often get told stories by Labour stalwarts and my family of how much politics has changed, how it’s no longer possible to be agreeably disagreeable, how it’s impossible to debate without hatred, to recognise our political differences but come together when we find common causes we’re passionate about. However, you only have to look at Tom to find someone who tried to make the best out of a bad situation, who tried to work with those who not only disagreed with him, but despised him and the progressive politics he represented, who tried to find the good in everyone he worked with. I am acutely aware some will say that Tom was too kind, that he didn’t challenge the status quo as publicly and as harshly as he could have done, and some will say he quit too early, that he has cast aside the fight for Labour’s heart & soul. I disagree. Tom was and will continue to be an inspiration to me.
The battles ahead for Labour will be hard – it will involve self-reflection, we’ll have to face the aggressive & toxic hard-left, their abuse and threats both online and offline as they attempt to stamp out dissent and differences in opinion. It will be hard – but we know, as progressives, that politics need not be this way, we know politics is seriously broken but equally recognise that if we do not stand up, who will? I strongly believe that this country needs a Labour government – that won’t change anytime soon, I want us in government so that it can stand up for the rights and livelihoods of those who call this country home and those abroad that don’t – I can believe that and still believe that in its current form, Labour is unfit for purpose, controlled and poisoned with institutional antisemitism where if you subscribe to the hard-left and the leadership, you can say and do as you wish without consequence. We have seen the leadership office intervene in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism, sexual assault & harassment, we’ve seen them and members of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) defend, incite and protect their mates and political allies and I am sure we haven’t seen the last of it. Labour has let the UK’s Jewish Communities down, they have let our women and minority members down. Labour has shamefully but proudly spat in the face of social justice & equality.
Difficult months lie ahead for progressives in Labour. I’ll be campaigning to send mainstream Labour MP’s back to Westminster. I’ll continue to serve the party and my local area as a Labour & Co-Op Councillor, but I won’t stop campaigning for the better country and party I wish to see. I will stay true to my Labour values both inside and outside of Labour. This is my party and I am determined to stay and organise to defeat institutional racism in favour of decent, progressive politics. I am determined to be the last progressive to turn the lights out if I have to. The fight for Labour’s heart & soul is truly on, and it truly intensifies the day after this year's General Election – with a Deputy Leadership contest. My plea to Labour members – stay, organise, fight. My plea to those who have left Labour and feel able to – come back, stay, organise and fight with us. Labour is the only vehicle for political change this country has; it’s time to really commit ourselves to saving it and returning it to its former glory. As progressive Labour members, let’s lick our wounds and fight for the party we love. Let’s make sure that no progressive in Labour has to be the last one to turn the lights off.
