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| From: Labour Affairs: Editorials |
| Date: April, 0001 |
| By: Editorial |
Starmer Changes Labour’s Electoral Base |
| Starmer Changes Labour’s Electoral Base The National Executive Committee (NEC) passed a motion on 28th March which barred Jeremy Corbyn, the previous leader of the Labour Party, from standing as a candidate in the constituency in which he had been MP for the last 40 years. Wars It’s a remarkable motion because it is fundamentally false. Clause 5 of Starmer’s motion notes “that, in the 2019 general election, led by Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party returned 202 MPs to parliament, being the lowest number of Labour Party MPs returned since the 1935 general election;†This is a matter of fact. However its significance is certainly open to interpretation. Why did Labour lose a large number of seats in 2019? The implication we are encouraged to draw from the motion is that the responsibility for the loss of seats was Corbyn’s. This is not true. The primary responsibility for the loss of seats was Keir Starmer’s. He hijacked the 2018 party conference to commit the party to a second referendum if it should win the next general election in 2019. Boris Johnson fought the 2019 general election with the slogan ‘Get Brexit Done’. Labour fought it under Keir Starmer’s Brexit policy which the ‘red wall’ understood as ‘Let’s Stop Brexit’. Starmer’s strategy resulted in the loss of some 55 ‘Leave’ voting’ red wall seats that had voted Labour since time immemorial but whose electorate now felt betrayed by Starmer’s 2 nd referendum policy and abstained in mass. It is interesting to note that, despite those abstentions, Labour still got more votes under Corbyn in 2019 than did Ed. Miliband in 2015 or Gordon Brown in 2010. Clause 7 of Starmer’s NEC motion then claims “that the Labour Party’s standing with the electorate in the country, and its electoral prospects in seats it is required to win in order to secure a parliamentary majority and/or win the next general election, are both significantly diminished should Mr Corbyn be endorsed by the Labour Party as one of its candidates for the next general election.†This is a very curious claim. Membership of the Labour Party increased from some 200,000 to over 500,000 after Corbyn became leader. In the first general election fought with Corbyn as leader, Labour ended the Conservative’s overall majority. Labour, under Corbyn, was clearly very voters would not now vote Labour if Corbyn were allowed to stand? A few fervent supporters of Israel’s war to conquer and colonize the Palestinian territories might opt not to vote Labour. But they will be infinitely less numerous than the Labour supporters who will make a protest ‘Green’ vote because of Starmer’s dishonourable treatment of Corbyn. The policy of blocking Corbyn will lead to a drop in the Labour vote among erstwhile Labour supporters. Starmer knows this so one must assume that he is targeting voters who have not previously voted Labour. Starmer’s motion refers to Labour’s “electoral prospects in seats it is required to win in order to secure a parliamentary majorityâ€. This is the key to Starmer’s motion. Starmer is targeting seats that have rarely voted Labour. Starmer is attempting to make Labour attractive to voters who would never have considered voting Labour. To be successful in doing, this Starmer will jettison almost all the radical policies on which he fought the Labour leadership election. To win these seats, Starmer is prepared to commit Labour to a pro-market, probusiness and anti-trade union agenda on the domestic side. It will spend money on the NHS and countering Climate change. But any such spending will be limited by fiscal rules and a desire for low taxation. The British establishment had been shocked by the results of the 2017 General Election. Jeremy Corbyn, a socialist in his economic and social policies and also a strong opponent of Israel’s determination to conquer and colonize the Palestinian territories, came close to being elected Prime Minister of Britain. The establishment set out to destroy Corbyn. Starmer, by stopping Corbyn being a Labour candidate in a future general election, is sending a clear message to the establishment. They have nothing to fear from a future Labour government. Such a government will spend more on the NHS, schools and climate change. But that’s about it. On the international front it will be a reliable supporter of the US and NATO and hostile to Russia and China. The problem with this strategy is that a Starmer government will be severely limited in what it can achieve. Britain needs a much strengthened state that will take ownership of the many areas in which private enterprise has failed: housing, transport, energy, education, health, water, climate change. Without a stronger state nothing will change. Starmer may win an overall majority by assuaging the qualms of some middle class voters but he will assume government without a mandate to make the radical changes that British society needs. Starmer’s NEC Motion For completeness we give below the full text of Starmer’s NEC motion to block Corbyn being a Labour Party candidate and how the NEC voted on the motion: This meeting of the NEC notes: the Labour Party’s purpose is to organise and maintain in parliament and in the country a political Labour Party; the NEC’s primary purpose, pursuant to Chapter 1, Clause VIII.2 of the Labour Party rule book, to provide a strategic direction for the Labour Party as a whole to secure the Labour Party’s objectives, and the NEC’s key function to win elections and maintain the support of voters, pursuant to Chapter 1, Clause VIII.2.B of the Labour Party rule book; the NEC’s responsibility to act in the best interests of the Labour Party as a whole to further, as best as it can, the Labour Party’s best political interests and its political position in the country; that the Labour Party has not secured a parliamentary majority in the House of Commons since 2005; that, in the 2019 general election, led by Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party returned 202 MPs to parliament, being the lowest number of Labour Party MPs returned since the 1935 general election; and Mr Corbyn is currently a member of the Labour Party and an Independent MP for Islington North; and that the Labour Party’s standing with the electorate in the country, and its electoral prospects in seats it is required to win in order to secure a parliamentary majority and/or win the next general election, are both significantly diminished should Mr Corbyn be endorsed by the Labour Party as one of its candidates for the next general election. This meeting of the NEC considers and agrees that: in order to effect the NEC’s primary purpose to maximise the Labour Party’s prospects of winning the next general election, and to avoid any detrimental impact on the Labour Party’s standing with the electorate in the country as a whole; the Labour Party’s interests, and its political interests at the next general election, are not well served by Mr Corbyn running as a Labour Party candidate; and it is not in the best interests of the Labour Party for it to endorse Mr Corbyn as a Labour Party candidate at the next general election. Accordingly, this meeting resolves that: Mr Corbyn will not be endorsed by the NEC as a candidate on behalf of the Labour Party at the next general election; the general secretary write to Mr Corbyn immediately after this meeting to advise him of the above; and Mr Corbyn remains a member of the Labour Party and, save as set out above, his rights to attend Labour Party meetings and voting rights afforded under the Labour Party rule book remain unchanged. Proposer: Keir Seconded: Shabana Mahmood Starmer The motion was passed by 22 votes to 12. The 12 are: Andy Kerr (CWU) Mick Whelan (ASLEF) Ian Murray (FBU) Nicola Jukes (TSSA) Jayne Taylor (UNITE) Tony Woodhouse (UNITE) Mish Rahman (CLPs) Gemma Bolton (CLPs) Jess Barnard (CLPs) Yasmine Dar (CLPs) Ann Black (CLPs) Ellen Morrison (Disabled Members) Skwawkbox understands that deputy leader Angela Rayner stayed away from the meeting, avoiding the vote. Her union - and Corbyn’s - Unison abstained, to the fury of that union’s elected members who have long been fighting the right-wing Unison management and its contempt for democracy.1 GMB, USDAW and the Musicians Union voted for Starmer’s motion. Shame on them. Those of their members who are able to join other unions should do so immediately. |