PLP snatches defeat from the jaws of victory for Labour
It’s been quite embarrassing watching the own goal scored by the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) this last week. In a week that should have given the party a chance to make up all the lost ground with the voters that ultimately led to them losing what should have been an un-loseable election back in 2015, they chose instead to turn on their leader, ultimately giving the government time to recover from the EU referendum defeat and to hide their own deep divisions.
The conspirators were determined to make sure the Tories were ignored by the media. The PM had resigned, the chancellor went missing for 3 days whilst the markets plummeted, the government refused to invoke Article 50 nor even discuss the process to invoke it nor was there even talk about the timescales, so uncertainty swirled around and to add to what should have been an easy score, Boris Johnson was making a bid for PM (after he came back from his weekend playing cricket, of course). Add to that the previous issues of the alleged 28 Tory MPs that are accused of election fraud and the links to the companies named in the Panama papers and it made an easy target for the Party to attack the government on its competence and fitness for office.
Rather than grasping what should have been the perfect opportunity to highlight the lack of government preparation for this event, the cowardice of the Government ministers in what looked to be hiding from the media and putting the Labour Party’s case for what needs to be done, the PLP preferred to turned on their leader like sharks scenting blood in the water. They blamed him for the loss of the referendum and almost all of the other ills of the party since it was founded. The media loved it. They loved it so much they started adding to the cascading bad PR by making up events to make Labour look even worse.
This destabilisation wasn’t even a spur of the moment thing, despite how inept it looks. This coup had been promised by elements of the PLP since Corbyn was elected and the threat had been repeated before every single election held, whether they be council, mayoral, parliamentary by-elections or the referendum. Every time, there’s been “someone” briefing the media and ominously threatening that if it doesn’t go well then Corbyn will have to go. Finally they’ve made their move.
It’s not mattered one whit to them that the Party’s share of vote has increased in the elections held since Corbyn became leader:
or that party membership has increased:
or that:
Whereas since the 2010 election, the majority of the PLP had been voting with the government to worsen the plight of the vulnerable to levels not seen in generations. The betrayal of their supporters by the PLP was so bad that in 2015, The Times reported with some surprise that as many as 20% of the PLP voted against the welfare cuts, as it was expected the number would be less. At least Corbyn has put a stop to that ridiculousness, even if he couldn’t stop the warmongers in the party voting to bomb Syria.
If you ever wanted proof that the PLP opposing Corbyn would rather rip the party apart and make them unelectable for generations (rather than just the two elections the PLP have lost in the last 6 years), rather than move to a position where they support reducing inequality and making those at the higher end of income earners and tax avoiding corporations pay their share, there it is, on a garnished platter and supported by the media.
“I read the newspapers avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.”
Nye Bevan: Interview in The Times, 29 March 1960.
Some are claiming that this latest destabilisation is an attempt to remove Corbyn before the Chilcot report is released on July 6th. If it is, then thought processes of the conspirators are well and truly addled. Does anyone really believe that the party is best served by not having a leader on the day a damning report on the Blair government’s behaviour over the commitment to invade Iraq is a good thing? Apparently the conspirators do.
So now we’re in some ridiculous circling of the drain death match. The PLP and certain media vested interests against the membership and the unions. Some are calling it a fight for the soul of the Labour Party and they are essentially right, if Corbyn loses this then the so called left of the party – those who want to share our prosperity with those who are missing out and make the country a fairer and more equitable place to be – will not have another chance for generations to come. The PLP will make sure of it, just as they did in the 1990s when they changed the way that candidates were selected and it marginalised anyone who believed in social justice and equality. Which is why you’re seeing young and old MPs supporting Corbyn but not really too many middle aged, as for almost 20 years social justice and socialism as we know it was a dirty word to the party.
So it all boils down to who blinks first. The conspirators have no succession plan or even a suitable nominee, despite plotting this since last September and for reasons only known to them, are determined to see it though. Corbyn is not for resigning and that’s the only way the PLP can go into the leadership election without coming out of it thoroughly trounced. Which is why we’re seeing Tom Watson trying to sue for a “negotiated settlement”. Seriously, I wouldn’t even get these conspirators to organise dinner, they’re so inept.
Any doubt I had that Corbyn would succumb to the pressure placed on him to “resign for the good of the party” are now well and truly laid to rest. He’s staying for the good of the party – the membership elected him and only the membership can take his role away.
That’s democracy for you.
“I do not represent the big bosses at the top. I represent the people at the bottom, the individual men and women.”
Nye Bevan: House of Commons 28 April 1944
Further reading
John McDonnell on the leadership battle
New Labour emerges from hibernation sooner than expected…and unready
John Curtice – Don’t blame Jeremy Corbyn – polls show only Tory voters could have kept us in the EU
Craig Murray – It’s Still the Iraq War, Stupid
Alex Nunns – 1983: the biggest myth in Labour Party history
The Times – Labour split as new MPs vote against Osborne’s welfare cuts
Tom Watson calls on Labour MPs to step back from brink over leadership contest
