Our critics say the Labour left was wrong on Brexit, Corbyn and radical policies – I disagree on all three

The bigger picture is this: like it or not, there is a culture war in Britain

In the wake of the Conservatives’ victory, the Labour left is now subject to three lines of attack: that we should have supported Brexit, that we moved too far left, and that we should not have backed Jeremy Corbyn.

I reject them all.

It’s not true that we should have supported Brexit

To understand how much bullshit is being talked about Brexit, take a look at the polling averages for 2019. Between April and June Labour’s support slumped from 32 per cent to 22 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats surged, at the very moment we rejected the second referendum. If we had followed the advice of the Lexiteers we would have started this election neck and neck with the Liberal Democrats, and probably lost numerous activists to the Greens and disillusionment.

As a result of the line imposed by Corbyn’s inner circle and the general secretaries of Unite and the Communication Workers’ Union, we had to spend the entire summer and autumn fighting to regain 10+ percentage points lost to a liberal, centrist, pro-Remain party. That was time we could have spent working in the constituencies we have now lost. Instead we spent the summer in the ludicrous position of worrying about losing Brixton to the Liberal Democrats.

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It’s not true that we moved too far to the left

The move to the left on economic policy was not the major problem on the doorstep. Elements of it could have been sold better; and there were too many promises and not enough narrative.

The manifesto became, as Richard Tawney complained of Lansbury’s manifesto in the 1930s, a glittering forest of Christmas trees with presents for everyone.

But a large section of voters wanted only one Christmas present: Brexit – and on terms no Labour party, left or centrist led, could agree to.

Corbyn on the doorsteps

Jeremy himself, however, did become a major problem. On the doorsteps of Leave areas I heard time and again that issue number one was Corbyn, and only number two was Brexit. We managed to move the conversation beyond Brexit, but not beyond Corbyn.

There are many reasons for Corbyn becoming an electoral problem, and despite our gratitude and solidarity to Jeremy for enduring the past two years we need to be honest about them.

‘Corbyn surrounded himself with people determined to build walls around him instead of alliances’

First, the absolute levels of vilification and slander aimed at him by the right wing media and the neo-liberal centre.

Second, his indecision over Brexit. For a man sold to the electorate as a conviction politician, to dither for months, and go into the election neutral on the biggest issue of the day, was fatal

Third, his abject failure to get a grip over the anti-Semitism crisis, which became reputationally damaging for the entire 500,000 activist base. The low point of this was when his advisers tried to rewrite unilaterally an internationally accepted IHRA definition, against strong advice.

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Fourth, his decision to surround himself with people determined to build walls around him instead of alliances; the use of bureaucratic means to impose wholly unsuitable candidates, and to delay the selection of candidates to facilitate this.

He went into the May EU elections unpopular with Leave voters in the north; he came out of it equally unpopular with the Remain voters of the big cities. He abandoned the mantle of insurgency but never looked competent in return, and in the campaign never discovered the ability to engage voters he showed in 2017.

But the bigger picture is this: like it or not, there is a culture war in Britain.

Corbyn already symbolised the cultural enemy for the Express-reading nativist workers in places where we’ve lost. After May, for many progressive workers in Labour’s big city heartlands, he looked disinterested in championing their values. His strategy was to refuse culture war but it engulfed him.

All this was clear in the Spring of 2019, but those of us who tried to change things – even minor things, like his advisers – were vilified and excluded by the tight circle around the leadership.

‘Corbyn abjectly failed to get a grip on the anti-Semitism crisis’ (Picture: Tolga AKMEN / AFP)

Corbyn is right to stand down

Jeremy should now stand down. He’s done his best with the available situation but we’ve been defeated. I want to pay tribute to his resilience and humour in the face of the worst vilification campaign in modern history.

I don’t want a long interregnum or “period of reflection”: we need a leadership contest in which an internationalist left takes control of the party and builds a genuine alliance with the centre left based on respect and compromise.

The new leadership’s job should be to cement the left economic programme, democratise the party further and turn it into a mass social movement.

Corbynism, for about the past 12 months, has been less than the sum of its parts – because the pro-Remain internationalist left and the Lexiteers were fighting each other over the most strategic issue.

Meanwhile the party machine remained unreformed, sluggish and inept. It was better than 2017 but on all available evidence was once again outperformed by Momentum – in terms of activism, organisation and digital strategy.

Clearly we will have to rebuild confidence and support among voters in the north and midlands of England. But there cannot be one step back from our commitment to openness, tolerance, anti-racism and internationalism.

To the extent that we cannot regain support in those areas, we have to build a new electoral alliance – and potentially a series of electoral pacts, based around the promise of electoral reform.

This post was originally published on Paul Mason’s blog 

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