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Long thread alert! For @Keir_Starmer to set @UKLabour back on a path towards being a party of government again he must ditch his commitment to unite the party. He now must now set on a deliberate and muscular effort to divide it.
For 10 years, the Labour Party has allowed – encouraged even – an abundance of malcontents, idealists & refuseniks to inhabit it. Membership has soared but its effect has been to weaken its core democratic purpose – to secure wider support and win power.
The relationship between the party membership & the wider public is complex. There was a naive view after 2010 that expanding membership was a crucial bridgehead to engaging the wider public.
But the reverse is true. The party has for many become an escape from the tough reality of electoral politics, a retreat to a warm comfort zone where we can despise the Tories, sneer at our country’s flag and pontificate about Palestine and Venezuela.
In recent months, I have joined a few meetings of my local west London constituency Labour Party. The discussions are from a different planet. In February, a committed Marxist revolutionary activist secured more votes to be delegate at the LP’s annual conference than anyone else.
Keir’s pitch for unity 12 months ago helped ensure he won support from some Corbynites and, no doubt, was based on a calculation that after more than a decade out of power the party would rally around anything that made us more electable.
But this unity – however well-intentioned – means that the party continues to provide a comfortable home for people and ideas that are inconsistent with the task of seeking to become a party of government.
This has to change – and the public must see it has changed if they are to allow us once more to form a government. After all, we created this mess. We now need to show we are cleaning it up.
Keir’s determination to root out anti-semites was long overdue. But the bigger, more difficult, task is to root out those who block and obstruct what Labour needs to do to offer a genuine electoral alternative in the future too.
This is a huge, and involves policy, process and cultural change. It means being ruthless about getting the party back into some of shape to win elections, even if that means losing half its membership, and others along the way.
It will require tough and determined leadership with Keir willing to face down and take on those in the PLP and trade unions who are the cheerleaders for the rotten culture in the party. It will be uncomfortable and messy. It will dominate the airwaves and newspaper columns.
But if he fails to do so, I fear that not only will his leadership be doomed but the Labour Party itself cease ever again to be a viable electoral force. ENDS
