AFTER a debilitating, year-long war over the soul of the Labour Party, many are asking if the victory of the hard left means that Britain is becoming a one-party state. And although Jeremy Corbyn has won his long and bruising leadership battle against Owen Smith, the party remains as divided as it was when Corbyn was first elected leader a year ago in the wake of the shattering defeat in the general elections last year.
The reason many pundits, including respected left-wing commentators, fear for the two-party system they have grown up with is that they deem Labour under Corbyn to be unelectable. And it is true that the right-wing media is gloating over the prospect of a walkover in the next elections due in 2020, even though Corbyn has warned his supporters to be ready for polls as early as 2017.
In the recent leadership election — called in the wake of a no-confidence motion against Corbyn by Labour MPs — the hard-line left-winger received nearly 62 per cent of the votes, and has an overwhelming mandate from the young members who have flocked to the party since Corbyn was first elected. Nevertheless, the disgruntled party grandees who opposed him from day one are still against him and his policies today. This casts a dark cloud over the party’s prospects of forging unity, and becoming a credible opposition once more.
In the annual party conference where the result was announced, Jeremy Corbyn made an eloquent speech, urging the disaffected members to come together, and offering to ‘wipe the slate clean’. But several frontline MPs have already said they would not accept shadow cabinet positions under Corbyn.
Many of them deplore the threat of deselection levelled by party activists, and want reassurances that their parliamentary future is secure. Candidates are selected by constituency party members, and in most cases, are endorsed by them in the next elections. However, in certain rare cases, members can withdraw their endorsement, effectively deselecting their candidates. Under Corbyn, there has been a call by new members that MPs classified as ‘Blairites’ and those who supported the war on Iraq should be deselected. This has made a number of senior Labour MPs insecure and resentful of the new order where their authority has been severely undercut.
For his part, Corbyn insists he wants to make Labour more democratic, and would like members to have a say in the running of their party. Such is his appeal that the membership has swollen to over 500,000, making Labour the biggest party in Europe. But members alone can’t elect Labour to power: it will have to appeal to a far wider electorate to win power. And on current form, around 45pc of British voters claim to be centrists, and only 19pc declare they are left of centre. Even worse news for Labour is that according to a recent opinion poll, Theresa May, the British prime minister, leads her Labour rival by 55pc when it comes to leadership qualities.
Corbyn has taken some positions that are very distant from the current consensus. For example, he opposes the Trident deterrent that consists of submarine-borne nuclear missiles that will replace the current ageing system at an estimated cost of some 34 billion pounds. But apart from the ruling Conservatives, the replacement programme is supported not just by most Labour front-benchers, but several unions that welcome the new jobs it would create.
Perhaps even more contentious is Corbyn’s stance on immigration, an issue that caused thousands of Labour voters to break ranks and vote for Brexit. Corbyn has openly stated that he does not seek to halt the freedom of people from EU countries to enter Britain despite the Brexit victory. This puts him at odds with many of his own party.
Traditional Labour supporters and liberal Brits deplore the rise of the hard left, and blame what they consider clueless youngsters who have flocked to the party for Corbyn’s victory. But when interviewed, these youthful fresh entrants deny they are hard-line Trotskyites, but insist they are looking for an alternative to the Tory-Labour power-sharing arrangement that has created the current economic disparities. For these young people, incomes are low, jobs are scarce and housing is out of reach. So they argue, with considerable justification, that they want to change Labour to bring it in line with their aspirations, rather than have the party remain the handmaiden to the rich and powerful that it had become under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
What Corbyn and his close associates are trying to do is to create a new political landscape where the needs of people are put first, and the rich are taxed to pay for a stronger social net. They oppose the spending cuts the Tories have unleashed on the vulnerable, and propose to alter the trajectory of British foreign policy so that it no longer follows America to war.
Clearly, these are difficult, perhaps impossible, goals Corbyn has set for Labour. But he argues that the point of achieving power should be about transformation, and not the exercise of power for its own sake. His youthful followers sustain his vision of a nuclear-free, socialist Britain. Perhaps these are unachievable, utopian dreams, but for the moment, Corbyn has won the argument in his own party. Whether he can win it in the country is, at present, doubtful.
As he said, Labour has a mountain to climb to win power. The British establishment and the powerful right-wing media oppose him implacably. Even left-of-centre newspapers like The Guardian urge him to take a more pragmatic view to forge party unity, and make Labour electable. But for many, there should be a place for dreamers in politics.
Published in Dawn October 3rd, 2016
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.