Labour’s Failure

As the Labour Party falls into ever deeper turmoil, all involved should take the blame

Britain has just voted to leave the EU in a referendum set by the Conservative Party, despite the vast majority of Tory MPs backing remain. It was a gamble by David Cameron which has backfired, and in the aftermath he has pledged to step down as leader, kicking off a contest to select the new Conservative leader, and thus the new Prime Minister.

Despite this Tory turmoil, Labour are hogging the headlines with their own intra-party struggles. Dissatisfaction with Corbyn’s leadership, in the wake of what was viewed as a lacklustre campaign by him in support of remain, has led to a slew of resignations from the shadow-cabinet, followed by Labour members launching a vote of no confidence against him. The motion passed 172–40, but Corbyn has remained defiant, stating that dissatisfied backbenchers should launch a leadership election if they want rid of him.

Corbyn’s entire leadership reign has been turbulent, and Labour has been split since day one between Corbyn’s allies and his enemies within the party. Each side blames the other for Labour’s failure to win public support and act as an effective opposition.

The truth is that both sides have failed.

Jeremy Corbyn has always been in a bit of an odd position. He was elected into power on a wave of popular support, having enthused many to sign up for Labour membership just to be able to vote for him. He won the leadership election with 59.5% of the vote — a landslide. To this day, he holds a devoted fan base; reports are claiming that a rally to support Corbyn in London has had to be cancelled and relocated due to too high demand. Despite this, he’s never polled well with the public at large.

This phenomenon is due to the nature of Corbyn’s supporters. As a real, marked alternative to austerity politics, and an ideologically driven left wing stalwart, he attracted a large base of similarly ideological, highly politically active supporters. Their high political engagement drove his leadership victory win, and likely still would today (the reason Labour MPs have been trying to convince Jeremy to step down, as opposed to opting straight for a leadership election, is probably as they too suspect they won’t win in a party wide vote.)

The problem is that Labour’s wider, traditional voter base is not ideologically driven. The working classes are not traditionally Labour voters because they are all avowed socialists, but simply because Labour usually does the most to help the working class.

These voters, who stay out of a Labour leadership vote, but whose votes Labour would hope to win in a general election, are therefore not as immediately enthused with Corbyn as his hardcore supporters are.

This does not mean that Labour couldn’t have done well under Corbyn’s policy platform though, and the fact that they’ve failed to win public support is a failure on both sides of the party.

The Parliamentary Labour Party at large never got behind Corbyn. Since the beginning there has been dissent, talk of coups, and infighting. This was caused by Corbyn’s critics, and has resulted in a lot of unnecessary damage to the party.

If they felt that Corbyn was ‘unelectable’, then they were wrong to do so. Why should the Conservatives’ policy platform be more popular to the working classes than an anti-austerity, workers-rights focused manifesto? A united Labour Party, all backing Corbyn’s policies could have won the public over, and countered the Conservatives’ narrative of austerity based economics being the only sensible economics. Yes, the public were receptive to the argument that a budget deficit is bad, but they are also receptive to the argument that cutting spending is bad.

Instead of a united Labour Party, utilising Corbyn’s qualities as an alternative, non-establishment politician, we’ve had a divided, divisive and ineffective opposition.

Jeremy Corbyn should also take his share of the blame though. He’s right that he has a mandate for his manifesto policies, after his big election win. And, as I say, Labour’s traditional working class voters could be persuaded to support these policies. The problem is, though, that he should have put in far more effort to reaching out to these voters; prioritising their concerns, using a bit of spin, and compromising from time to time.

Disappointment with Corbyn’s remain campaigning is valid. No, he himself might not be pro-EU, but since his party chose to back remain, he should have been a visible, vocal part of the run up to the referendum. We’ve heard more from Labour on Trident (an issue which the public is relatively not bothered about, and where his stance is unpopular) than we have on the referendum (an issue which has dominated the UK’s political landscape), and this makes Labour look out of touch and irrelevant.

I argued last summer that Labour under Jeremy Corbyn would not necessarily be unelectable, and I stand by this view. If the party had endorsed Corbyn’s policies and created a strong case for them, and if he himself had played to his strengths and been willing to compromise to appeal to the wider public, the party could be in a strong position right now. What we’ve had instead has been two opposing groups, both too stubborn to change their minds and do what it takes to be an electable opposition. It’s hard to see now how Labour come out of this predicament looking strong and credible, and they have only themselves to blame.