The Labour form book: Jon Cruddas

Coffee House is running a series of posts on the contenders to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour party leader.  The latest is below.  To read our profile of David Miliband, click here.

Jon Cruddas, 46

Pros

Clean hands: Cruddas has served in neither the Brown nor the Blair cabinets so it would be harder for the Tories to pin Labour’s failures on him, and he is not compromised by association with the failed Brown premiership. Also, Cruddas hasn’t been a participant in the Blairitie-Brownite wars so he gives Labour a chance to break out of that destructive cycle.

Anti-politics politics: Cruddas doesn’t look or sound like a typical Westminster politician. He would stand out from Cameron and Clegg. Cruddas is also far more of the grassroots politician—see his work in Dagenham against the BNP —than either Cameron or Clegg.

He understands that this is a new fight against a different enemy: The Labour party is split between those who are totally demoralised and those who think that all Labour need do is shout ‘same old Tories—Tory cuts’ and the public will ultimately give Labour a fourth term. Cruddas realises that the Tories have changed, and has ideas about how Labour should take the fight to this new enemy.

Cons

The public doesn’t know him: In the short term, this could be an advantage for Cruddas; he could have a Palin-style effect on Labour’s fortunes. But in the medium term this poses a problem, as it has with Palin. His public image is going to be phenomenally vulnerable—any slip or gaffe is really going to hurt him and if he gets the name of a major foreign leader wrong then his credibility on the world stage could be shot. Equally, the public could become disillusioned when they find that for all Cruddas’ differences with new Labour he has voted for the Iraq war, the abolition of the 10p tax rate and 42 days.

Life on Mars politics: The Tories will attack Cruddas as a lurch to the left, the end of New Labour and a return to the days when the unions set the Labour party’s agenda. However, there’s a danger in this for the Tories as there are political opportunities on the left at the moment, and Cruddas, who isn’t afraid of his own leftism, could pull off a rope-a-dope strategy.

A huge leap: No one in the last 100 years has become Prime Minister without having served on either front bench. Cruddas would have to be a true political natural to successfully step up several levels and succeed in the most economically trying time in a generation. Cruddas is undoubtedly the most high risk, high reward choice of the possible leadership candidates.

MP for Dagenham since June 2001

No ministerial roles

Swing required to unseat

12.35% from Labour to Conservative

Major rebellions

Voted against Government on ban on prison officers striking (Jan ’08)
Voted against Government on Trident replacement (March ’07)
Voted against Government on Education and Inspections Bill (March/May ’06)
Voted against Government on Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill — Clause 43 — Accommodation (March ’06)
Voted against Government on tuition fees (March ’04)