Labour’s campaign in Crewe is, rightly being, lambasted. It is depressing that after 11 years in power, Labour can’t give voters a positive reason to vote for the party and have instead had to revert to the tired rhetoric of class prejudice. But what we shouldn’t overlook is how the issue is exacerbating the split within the Number 10 staff.
Stephen Carter, the strategist Brown hired to try and re-launch his premiership, is dead against the Crewe approach. The Mail on Sunday reports that he now plans to bring Oona King in as political secretary, in large part, because she shares his belief that these kind of attacks are ineffectual.
The anonymous briefings against King have already started. One MP complains to the Mail that King is a lightweight and unsuited to the role. King’s career never did reach the heights that many expected but it is understandable that Carter wants to recruit good media performers who are, to borrow a phrase, at ease with modern Britain. I suspect that the result in Crewe will show that voters are more worried about their economic circumstances than the social backgrounds of the candidates.
If Labour does lose Crewe, and the polls are suggesting it will, expect Carter and his people to blame the defeat on the Brownite bruisers. Labour’s divisive rhetoric will have succeeded only in heightening the divisions inside Number 10.
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