Labour: The right fights back

Labour: The right fights back

After heavy pounding from the Corbyn camp in the leadership election result, his opponents in the party returned fire today.

First up was Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London. He gave the required acknowledgement of Jeremy Corbyn’s renewed mandate then gave an alternative approach to politics that emphasised the need to win. You didn’t have to be trained at Bletchley Park to decipher the message: we must win, not winning is outrageous neglect of duty, we’re on course to lose.

Tuesday 27 Sep 2016

The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson then piled in with his own carefully phrased call for a different direction. He told delegates he was baffled why the some relentlessly attack the Blair and Brown years in power. There was some heckling (“what about Chilcot?” was one heard) and Mr Watson turned to Jeremy Corbyn and said someone hadn’t got the memo on unity. Many clapped that ad lib from Mr Watson, Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t among them. He stroked his beard.

Some close to Jeremy Corbyn regard Tom Watson as one of the most dangerous people in the Party. He has a mandate of his own (50.7% in the third round of the 2015 Deputy leadership contest to Jeremy Corbyn’s 59.5% back then – now 61.8%). They believe he’s been at the heart of the walkout from the front bench, his closest supporters assisted with the no confidence motion in Mr Corbyn and then backed Owen Smith in the leadership challenge.

It was an adrenalin filled moment in the hall when Mr Watson spoke, a novelty in a war that generally hadn’t spilled into the conference hall. The fighting’s mainly been restricted to NEC meetings, fringe meetings and bar room plotting. The Centre Right is comforting itself tonight, hitting the bars early in some cases, boasting that Mr Corbyn has been defeated 6 times over the addition of Scottish and Welsh representatives to the NEC (see previous blogs). Few of them intend to hang around until tomorrow to cheer on the man they publicly declared no confidence in not so long ago.

Mr Corbyn’s team think these lost skirmishes are as nothing to the big war. They have a beefed up mandate that obliges big name MPs to return to the front bench (there have been many efforts to win over Ed Miliband amongst others to put their shoulders to the wheel). They think they can change the rules on policy making at the November NEC away-day to their advantage. They think they have the cards and Mr Corbyn’s message in interview tonight and no doubt in his speech tomorrow will be there’s every chance of an early election and no time for disunity.