Some Labour MPs have been expressing their regret at the fun and games they indulged in to get Jeremy Corbyn onto the leadership contest ballot paper back in the heady days when this was about ‘broadening the debate’, rather than the guy actually having a chance of winning. Now that another poll suggests he could be in with a shot, the fun and games looks rather less fun. That’s why Tony Blair was so forceful this morning, and that’s why MPs such as Tristram Hunt and Chuka Umunna have been so agitated in public about the matter.
But those in the party who are horrified that Corbyn is gaining so much traction should be careful of the way they express their alarm. Those who believe that Labour wins elections when it fights in the centre ground have good reason to regret the tactics that put Corbyn on the ballot paper in the first place, but they must acknowledge that in doing so Labour MPs were feeding a hunger in the party electorate for a hard left candidate. They might not want Corbyn to be party leader, but many of their members clearly do. And even if those members are wrong about what wins elections – or perhaps even about the advantages of remaining in opposition and losing with style, those members have the same right to a vote as Labour MPs.
It isn’t even right for Labour MPs to complain that Corbyn is getting his backing from newly-signed up Unite stooges. In the Times/YouGov poll, he leads on first preferences for members who joined before the 2010 election (on 37 per cent, with Burnham on 27, Cooper on 23 and Kendall on 14), for those who joined after the 2010 election (on 42 per cent, with Burnham on 27, Cooper on 20 and Kendall on 12) and for those who joined after the most recent election (on 50 per cent, with Burnham on 25, Cooper on 16 and Kendall on 9). He also leads on second preferences for all those groups of members.
So even if Corbyn hadn’t made it onto the ballot paper, what the Labour parliamentary party needs to deal with is that its membership – even those members who are councillors in marginal seats, as demonstrated by this Anglia Ruskin poll – is very comfortable with a very left-wing candidate, even if the wider electorate isn’t. Corbyn deserved to be on the ballot paper if that’s what the membership wants – but it does mean the membership will get what it deserves if it backs him and finds that voters aren’t quite so keen on Labour for a little while.
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