Labour conference is now firmly underway in Liverpool, as is the ‘World Transformed’ festival organised by Corbynite grassroots organisation Momentum. Labour MPs and long-time activists are wandering about in a state of bewilderment at the change forged in their party over the past year, perhaps best embodied by the joyful appearance of former Militant bigwig Derek Hatton in the conference hall. Hatton was wearing a press pass, which will leave Corbynistas bewildered: aren’t they supposed to hate journalists?
Everyone is trying to appear to be terribly nice to one another now that Corbyn has his even bigger mandate. Conversations between members of different factions rather resemble the afternoon tea scene in the ‘Importance of Being Earnest’, with both sides serving what has only the appearance of sweet tea. Chuka Umunna this morning complained on the Marr Show that people shouldn’t be talking about deselections in the Labour party and instead the focus should be on winning elections. What he really meant was that any attempts locally to deselect Labour MPs such as Peter Kyle and Stella Creasy would undermine the party’s aim to win general elections.
Corbyn himself argued in a reassuring voice that the ‘vast majority’ of Labour MPs had nothing to fear when it came to mandatory reselections. He ‘wished them well’ and said:
‘Let’s have a democratic discussion and I think the vast majority of MPs will have no problem whatsoever.’
It might have sounded as though he was trying to cheer the MPs up, but what they heard was that he felt that a small minority really did have something to worry about. The Labour leader also made it quite clear that he isn’t going to try to live up to the tests that the moderate MPs have set out for him in their qualified congratulatory statements about him winning for a second time: he was quite happy to plough the same furrow he always has on defence and national security. The real message is: you MPs who caused this leadership contest now need to be quiet, while I will ignore all the concerns you raised.
Another way of ignoring concerns from MPs and other traditional powerbases in the Labour party is to bypass the party’s ruling council, the NEC, when it comes to policy. Corbyn himself hinted at this in his interview, saying he wanted to give power to activists and put party conference at the ‘centre of concluding policy debates’. Which is another way of handing power to the people who agree with him.
Iain McNicol, the party’s general secretary, was greeted by a shout of ‘resign!’ from the conference audience as he started his speech. He too had some coded messages about the state of the party, lavishing praise on MPs and reminding those listening of Labour’s clause one, which is that the party was founded ‘to win elections and form governments’.
Now the evening fringes are underway and conference drinking is underway. Perhaps the rule of in vino veritas will apply and the different sides in the fractured Labour party will start to say what they really think of one another. Either way, the brittle peace is unlikely to last for very long.
This is from tonight’s Evening Blend, a free nightly round-up of all the day’s political developments. Sign up here.
Comments