Slumbering Labour needs a wake-up call

The public is saying what no one in the Labour Party dares to admit.

Just take a look at the commentary that has come out of Lord Ashcroft’s detailed research. The Conservative pollster has a sample of 10,000 voters and no fewer than 18 focus groups in which people’s concerns are laid bare.

My God, it makes grim reading for Corbynistas and all the facilitators of their disastrous regime over the past few years.

Labour is seen as ‘mostly for students, the unemployed and middle-class radicals’. It seems to ‘disdain…mainstream views’ and ‘disapprove of success’. The manifesto published at the end of last year? Pie in the sky. The party can’t be trusted on finance. It’s too left-wing. No priorities. No understanding of aspiration or prosperity.

The report is particularly heartbreaking for those of us who warned consistently of the folly of pursuing a hard-left agenda with veteran losers like Corbyn and McDonnell.

You’d think that after the catastrophic defeat on 12^th December last year, the gloves would be off. That people campaigning for the leadership would be telling a few home truths to the radical membership.

Incredibly, the party is in absolute denial.

Keir Starmer publishes a list of policy pledges which are straight out of the Corbyn playbook. He champions greater trade union rights, nationalisation and some peculiar act of Parliament to restrict military intervention abroad.

Some people say he doesn’t believe any of it. That come April, he’ll pivot and turn on the hard left, playing them for suckers.

Maybe. But I wouldn’t count on it.

Far more likely that he’ll plod along trying to accommodate the leftists, misfits, cranks and trolls who flooded into the party to venerate the sage of the allotment.

Every time he wants to nudge the party in the right kind of direction, he’ll be reminded of the debt he owes to the members who lent him their votes. And the promises he made during the campaign to honour the legacy and  'radicalism' of the 2015-19 period.

Starmer – the supposedly razor-sharp lawyer – has created many hostages to fortune. He’s given far more to the left than he ever needed to, given that he was the front runner from the start.

To be honest, it’s hard to see much difference between the policies he’s advocating and those proposed by the continuity Corbyn candidates.

Richard Burgon – one of the worst advertisement for a Cambridge education since the university received its charter from Henry III – introduces a ‘peace pledge’. A few days later, Starmer is talking about ‘illegal wars’.

Becky Long-Bailey challenges the candidates to back more nationalisation of the type rejected by the electorate two months ago. Sir Keir is only too happy to oblige!

The options now are looking pretty limited for Labour.

Is Thornberry a comic or tragic figure? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know her campaign has crashed and burned.

I’ll head to my CLP nomination meeting tomorrow, having rejoined the Labour Party just in time to participate. If I get the chance to make a speech, it will be for Lisa Nandy.

God knows, she doesn’t always hit the right note. But she’s undoubtedly bright and has an inquisitive disposition. She strikes me as someone who would always question and agonise rather than go with the crowd. And I think she understands something of the enormity of the problems facing Labour.

My pick for deputy is Dr Rosena Allin-Khan. The MP for Tooting has impressed me with her online presence and shrewd use of video. She is a good communicator and someone who represents the best of modern London. An excellent partner for Lisa in the battle that lies ahead.

Of course, it seems highly unlikely that my personal choices for the leadership team are going to prevail in the contest. Far more likely that it's a straightforward battle between Starmer and Long-Bailey. At least the preferential voting system allows me the opportunity to express a preference without compromise.

It is time – to paraphrase The Internationale in a way that I’m sure Richard Burgon would appreciate – for the Labour Party to arise from its slumbers. At the moment, it is sleepwalking towards a lame-duck leader – the #keirtaker – who appears defeated before he even assumes office. And a high price will be paid.