If not Gordon, who?
James Forsyth 4:49pm
The plot against Brown is rumbling on, every few hours another MP is publicly joining the call for a leadership vote. It seems that the idea of a crowning a new leader has been abandoned and that there will be a contest if Gordon goes.
Given the electoral college that Labour uses in its leadership contests, Alan Johnson would probably be the best placed candidate if he did run. He has appeal among MPs, party members and the trade unions and as a fairly non-ideological politician he would be acceptable to all the wings of the party. He is also seen as someone who ‘connects’ with the public and his biography is a plus.
The biggest question mark against him is whether he wants it or not. Some say that his confidence has been badly shaken by his loss to Harriet Harman in the deputy leadership contest last year, others that he really means it when he says that he doesn’t think he would be up to the job.
But if I was a Labour MP something else about Johnson would concern me: does he actually connect? As Mike Smithson has noted, Johnson came out badly when various possible Labour leadership candidates were focus grouped in 2006. Today’s Times suggests that Johnson still doesn’t poll well.
A panel of twenty people who all voted Labour at the last election but who were split evenly between those who had switched to the Tories, were now undecided and those who were still with Labour were asked to react to Brown, Johnson, Cruddas, Miliband and Purnell. In this message testing, Johnson did appallingly, worse than everyone else—even Brown did better than him.
Intriguingly, it was Jon Cruddas who most impressed the panel. Cruddas, who ran the best campaign for the deputy leadership last year and came a strong third, has long been viewed as a possible Labour leader after an election defeat. But this Times story is going to set off chatter about his more immediate prospects. Certainly, a clean hands contender—someone who hasn’t served in either the Blair or Brown cabinets—would be hard for the Tories to attack. He is also fresh enough that he would have a chance of stealing ‘change’ from the Tories. Those who say that he is too left-wing, should think about the fact that most of the political opportunities for Labour now are on the left.
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Simon
September 13th, 2008 5:19pm Report this commentJohnson will forever be undermined by his admission that he wasn't up to the job. This was an on the record comment and will not go away.
Cruddas is interesting - but not a PM. He might make a useful leader once the decade or so in opposition starts.
Harriet won't give up without a fight... I suspect she will want to step up.
Bring it on!
mitch
September 13th, 2008 6:13pm Report this commentIts his eyes, they look evil the mouth smiles but the eyes don`t I wouldn't trust him as far as I can spit.
Verity
September 13th, 2008 6:13pm Report this commentAlso, as I said before, the ladies like Johnson. Some Labourite women who weren't going to bother to vote this time would probably decide to vote and give him a chance. I'd rather see someone genuinely toxic like Jack Straw or Harriet Harpic.
Daniel Furr
September 13th, 2008 6:39pm Report this commentJohn McDonnell, head of the socialist wing, has joined the call.
He could bring another 20-40 MPs with him from the left.
TGF UKIP
September 13th, 2008 6:49pm Report this commentThe only possibility of a contest would be if an impeccably senior and widely respected non-Blairite stalking horse stepped forward. That's the only way the required 71 PLP votes will be garnered.
Gordon Bennet
September 13th, 2008 7:09pm Report this commentLabour has destroyed itself,as the saying goes" if you give them enough rope they will hang themselves".
The trouble with labour is they are attacking everybodys pockets for more money, they have destroyed family life along with Harriet Harman and the Mangina Mps.
labour have refused to have a meeting with Fathers For Juistice.
No wonder kids don't take any notice of people, they know that the police have very little resources available to tackle youth crime.
I think it's time to vote BNP!
Drew
September 13th, 2008 7:09pm Report this commentSince it'll take the SAS to winkle Brown out of Downing Street in 2010 (even as the removal van pulls away), this Parlour Game is beginning to pall.
Chuck Unsworth
September 13th, 2008 7:33pm Report this commentIt hardly matters. Faced with electoral annihilation who in his/her right mind would wish to be associated eternally with a savage defeat at the polls?
David C
September 13th, 2008 7:35pm Report this commentDo any of them have the authority to push through the profoundly unpopular policies that are needed to get the country out of the hole that their party dug for the UK.
Or will they be tempted to go for the damaging policies that will give them short-term popularity instead and make the hole deeper?
If there was a popular way out of this mess wouldn't Brown have found it by now?
Dirty Euro
September 13th, 2008 8:30pm Report this commentWe do not need to change the leader. Why change the leader before a recession. A new leader would be in even worse situation.
aristide
September 13th, 2008 10:07pm Report this commentAlan Johnson PM?
It will be great fun to have a PM who looks like a small-town spiv from a 1950's movie.
Brylcreemed hair, bright kipper tie, black & white wing-tip shoes and all that.
Carol-Ann
September 14th, 2008 1:11am Report this commentI like Cruddas.
sebastian
September 14th, 2008 1:32am Report this commentThey need someone sombre. Dark-suited. A brooder. A sorrower. A forlorn character to shoulder the corpse and mumble last rites. Hang on. Haven't they already got one of those?
JohnAnt
September 14th, 2008 2:36am Report this commentIt's obviously going to be a long and difficult decision to choose a new leader. So why don't they just move over to the opposition benches, and give themselves time to sort it out?
stereoviewer
September 14th, 2008 10:27am Report this commentI've never understood why Alan Johnson does so badly in these Labour focus groups. You would think that his moderate union background is the perfect compromise for a party which has to appease it's base but cant afford to entirely abandon the middle ground. I have no sympathy with his policies but Johnson is the only politician I have ever seen go on a chat show and come out of it looking like a human being. I wouldn't vote for him but at least he'd be an opponent worth respecting.
Nicholas
September 14th, 2008 2:23pm Report this comment"We do not need to change the leader. Why change the leader before a recession. A new leader would be in even worse situation."
That might be true if the current leader were an asset rather than a liability. Going into a crisis an incompetent, ineffective and deranged leader is probably worse than "every man for himself" (deliberately phrased to irritate New Labour wimmin btw).
The sensible thing for New Labour to do (a non-sequitur I know) would be to ask Her Majesty to dissolve parliament and to call a General Election. Then the Labour Party could engage in its ideological in-fighting without inflicting the fall out on the long suffering British public.
You Labourites need to realise - and soon - that the world does not revolve around Labour and its aspirations. That your party and party loyalty (clannish I call it) is not chosen and anointed to be special in the land.
For pity's sake, just for once put the country before your over-weaning arrogance and self-interest and give us that General Election. I promise you, your feet won't touch the ground, and then you'll think your current problems are a mere bagatelle.
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