From the moment of his election as leader
of the Labour Party in 2015, people turned out in large numbers supporting
Jeremy Corbyn and the radical agenda for change he represented. No other
politician in the UK would draw as large crowds as Corbyn, when he came to
speak to gatherings of thousands of people up and down the country. Record
numbers of activists joined or re-joined the Labour Party, making it one of the
largest parties in Europe. ‘As of January 2018, Labour had 552,000 members, a massive
increase on the 198,000 recorded prior to the 2015 election’ (Whiteley et al 2018).
Apart from his personal reputation as somebody who pursues principled politics, it was the policy agenda for radical change, which drew activists and voters alike to the Labour Party. Fed up with ever more austerity since the Conservatives had come to power in 2010, people longed for alternatives, which would put an end to budget cuts, privatisation of the NHS and start tackling rampaging inequality, which blighted British society.
It was, however, not only policies, which made Labour under Jeremy Corbyn attractive. There was also a different style of policy-making. Instead of focusing on the Westminster bubble of MPs as well as related journalists and academic analysts, who would like to limit policy-making to discussions in parliament, Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell together with their teams toured local Labour Party meetings across the country. They wanted to hear from people directly what kind of policies were important to them. My own constituency Broxtowe was visited on a number of occasions by Corbyn and McDonnell giving party members a clear sense that their opinions and proposals mattered when it came to policy-making inside the Labour Party and a future government. There was a clear feeling that real change is possible.
The general elections of December 2019 put an end to hopes for progressive change with the Conservatives winning a clear majority in parliament. How had this turn in fortunes been possible between 2017 and 2019? With hindsight, as left activists inside the Labour Party we completely misjudged the situation after the 2017 elections in my view. We felt that we were almost there, that state power was for the taking. It would only require one final push. I remember going out canvassing regularly as early as November 2017 for local elections only due in May 2019. Such was the euphoria that everything seemed possible provided we embarked on a campaign of permanent organising and mobilising. We could not have misunderstood the situation more drastically.
Corbyn’s victories as leader of the Labour Party in 2015 and
2016 came as a surprise to the political establishment, but they consoled
themselves with the thought that Labour under Corbyn was never going to win
elections. The 2017 general elections with Labour doing much better than
expected shook the establishment to the core. With many policies such as
nationalising key industries implying a clear cut in corporate profits, capital
and the establishment including many from within the Labour Party decided to
put an end to it and go on an all-out offensive. Of course, there was the drawn
out Brexit saga, which divided the Labour Party. But this on its own would not
have been enough to brush Corbyn aside. His personal reputation had to be
irreparably damaged. The charge of antisemitism, relentlessly pushed by the
media barons, did the trick. As students told me in 2017, nights out in the
nightclubs of Nottingham were completed with signing ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’. By
2019, Corbyn had been turned from hero into the biggest anti-Semite in the UK.
The outcome of the 2019 general elections is also the result of this political
assassination of Jeremy Corbyn.
Where does this leave the Labour Party? Since Keir Starmer has taken over as party leader in April 2020, the party’s fortunes have gone from bad to worse. The party continues to be well behind the Conservatives in the polls with Boris Johnson’s personal rating riding high. There is a desperate lack of clear policies (The Guardian, 29 March 2021). Where Corbyn and McDonnell presented regularly fresh, progressive policy ideas, all Starmer could come up with was a call to rally around the flag and show patriotism. Starmer’s opposition to an immediate increase in corporation tax (The Guardian, 3 March 2021) while large corporations such as Amazon had made super-profits during the pandemic is cringe-worthy for any party member on the left. But perhaps we should not be surprised about this lack of policies. Starmer had always been a one issue politician relentlessly pushing for a second EU referendum, even when it had become crystal clear that this focus on Brexit was dividing the party and undermining its chances in elections.
Members of the centre-left political establishment are quick
at excusing Starmer’s poor performance in challenging the government to date.
When asked how he would evaluate Starmer’s first year as Labour Party leader,
Tom Watson, the former deputy party leader who had constantly undermined Corbyn,
responded in a recent BBC interview
‘exceedingly well’. Martin Kettle from the Guardian
blames the pandemic for Starmer’s ill fortunes, but argues that he would have ‘a
second shot at making a first good impression’ (The Guardian, 1 April 2021). His fellow centre-left Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee excuses
Starmer by stating that his ‘constructive opposition’ would have been all what
was possible during the last year. A poor standing in opinion polls, for which
Corbyn was relentlessly criticised, is suddenly
supposed to be of secondary importance. ‘For now, have patience, you Labour supporters, until Covid
has passed’, is Toynbee’s rallying call (The Guardian, 6 April 2021).
Perhaps we should not be surprised by these apologists for a disastrous performance as leader of the opposition. Starmer’s historical role, if we can talk in such terms in relation to Starmer, is not to win general elections. Keir Starmer will never be British Prime Minister. His task is to ‘clear out’ the Corbynites from the party machine and remove them from the levers of power. Party internal democracy has been severely constrained in the process with members even prevented from discussing motions in support of Jeremy Corbyn at local party meetings. Those who dare to defy the new general secretary David Evans’ ‘orders’ have their party membership quickly suspended. Jeremy Corbyn himself is kept in limbo outside the Parliamentary Labour Party. It is difficult to imagine a more disgraceful and disrespectful treatment of a former party leader.
Starmer’s ‘historical’ task is to re-form the Labour Party
as a party of the establishment, which does not challenge the power of capital.
Starmer’s task is to re-focus policy-making on the Westminster bubble. Since
his accession to the party leadership, local party members in Broxtowe have no
longer been consulted for their opinions on policies. We have again become
relegated to ‘soldiers in the party’s electoral war machine’. I receive
invites to participate in phone banking to campaign in the forthcoming local
elections at least twice a week. Phone banking, door knocking, distributing
leaflets, putting up posters, this is what Labour Party membership has been
reduced to under Starmer. The discussion of policies is restricted to the top
table down in London and consultations with focus groups.
Where next for the left in Britain? We need to remember that the opportunities offered by Corbyn’s party leadership were not only the result of the person Corbyn himself. The groundswell of support for Corbyn had been prepared over years from the bottom-up in local anti-austerity groups, campaigns against the Bedroom Tax, opposition to Britain’s arms trade and many other grassroots initiatives. Activists on the left may have to return to these struggles in the preparation of the ground for a new offensive for state power in the future. For some, this means continuing working inside the Labour Party for policies of social justice and equality. For others, this implies leaving the party and working for progressive change from the outside.
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
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