‘There must be a reckoning if Gordon is to survive’

10 June 2009

Jon Cruddas, tribune of the left and foe of the BNP, tells James Forsyth his support for the PM is not unconditional, and praises James Purnell for being ‘true to himself’

Cruddas talks about Purnell ‘mining intellectual traditions in order to pull us out of the hole we’re in’. He says with a passion that almost propels him out of his chair — ‘I don’t like the way he’s being trashed, he’s a mate of mine.’ The prospect of Cruddas and Purnell running together seems far more realistic than that of Labour winning the next election.

Maybe for the plotters too much is about personality not policy, but Cruddas is guilty of not thinking about personality enough. He is reluctant to engage with the idea that Brown himself might be as much of a problem in communicating where Labour wants to take the country as the lack of policy. When I push him on whether dumping Brown might be necessary if not sufficient for a Labour revival, he — unusually for him — pauses for a long time before saying: ‘I don’t know, we’ll see, we’ll see. It depends on how much he acknowledges that this is a profound change, epochal.’

The question is if Brown doesn’t get it — and Brown shows no signs of doing so — will Cruddas call for a profound change in personnel as well as policy? That will be the test of whether Cruddas wants to be a player rather than just the most interesting voice on the sidelines.

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Mr Green

June 11th, 2009 1:45pm Report this comment

So Cruddas says he knows what the people of Dagenham want. Fair enough, I think we all do. But as that completely conflicts with Labour policy, and indeed it was Labour's immigration policy which caused it all, why on earth does he feel that Labour are the right party to resolve the issue.

Cruddas may be an honourable, principled man, but if has to lie in order to win votes then he is as bad as the rest of them.

Andy

June 11th, 2009 2:57pm Report this comment

Why, despite the evidence of the votes when people were given a chance to cast them, does Labour persist in asserting it knows what the electorate wants? Let's have an election asap so we can SHOW what we want at the ballot box. Clearly, people do not want Labour in any way, shape or form and that's why we won't be allowed to have our say.

Ruth

June 11th, 2009 3:10pm Report this comment

There wouldn't be a problem with the BNP if the Labour Party didn't have such visceral hatred of the white working class.

Cruddas is not part of the solution, he's part of the problem.

Alex

June 12th, 2009 4:55pm Report this comment

Why does the Spectator of all publications insist on describing the BNP as a party of the far right? The BNP is a party of the left, like the Nazis (if you don't believe me have a look at the discussion on Ian Dale's blog).

This is an important battle. The left-leaning media routinely and without explanation dismiss the BNP as a far-right party because it does not suit the Left to examine the BNP closely. If you do examine it closely, you find that many of its policies are characteristic of the Left, in that they are big-government policies.

The conservatives have got to challenge the notion that they are somehow a watered-down version of the BNP. They aren't: Labour is, with its authoritarian disregard for the freedom of the individual and, let's face it, their commitment to "British jobs for British workers."