Isabel Hardman
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In a press release, Ward claims ‘there is a virus in the Labour party and Jeremy Corbyn is the antidote’. This sort of language shows how difficult it will be for anyone to unite the party, when those of a slightly different persuasion but within the same tribe are being described as ‘viruses’.
The Blairites are having a terrible leadership election. It’s not just that their candidate, Liz Kendall, is trailing miserably behind the others, but it’s that they are struggling to win the battle of ideas, or even get much purchase with their arguments about who is the least worst candidate for those who don’t want to back Kendall. In the politics column in this week’s Spectator, I look at how the faction is in decline in the party, and its leading lights’ plans to bounce back. Chuka Umunna’s plan in particular is interesting, with the Shadow Business Secretary keen to encourage institutions that will help make centre-left arguments in the public sphere that are outside the Labour party. He thinks the Centre for Social Justice and the TaxPayers’ Alliance are good examples of how organisations outside political parties can help those inside. The TPA point out that they are a non-partisan organisation, but their arguments about responsible public spending have clearly helped the Tory party over the years. Umunna wants a similar network of influential organisations on the Left to do the same.
It’ll have to be quite a hefty network, though. As I said yesterday, the unions have shown in this contest that they are keen for a big shift in the Labour party’s policy, and any victor who isn’t called Jeremy Corbyn will find themselves in constant conflict with those powerful groups.
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