It is now just six weeks until the first post-partygate test for Boris Johnson’s Tories, with campaigning for the local elections already well underway. Labour under Keir Starmer are feeling confident: ahead in the polls, they know that the cost-of-living crisis will begin to eat away at the respite afforded to Johnson by Ukraine. Indeed there are even fears that the Prime Minister’s own backyard, Hillingdon council, will go red for the first time in nearly 25 years.
An early portent of what could be to come was provided on Thursday when England’s most exclusive electorate went to the polls. Elections were held for the Court of Common Council, the main decision-making body of the City of London Corporation which governs the City of London. This uber-wealthy body is arguably the wealthiest local authority in Britain, with a tidy £2.6 billion in net assets. Traditionally, candidates for the 100 seats have stood under ‘independent’ labels’ but in recent years Labour has begun to field representatives under their own colours.
And that strategy paid off Friday morning when news broke that the party had retained all five of its seats and more than doubled their share of the vote to 15.4 per cent. Among the ‘famous five’ who triumphed in this hotbed of capitalism was unabashed socialist Frances Leach, a battle-hardened veteran of the Jeremy Corbyn operation. Well, at least she’ll be used to crisis management. Responding to grumbles that Labour’s victories were eroding the City’s independent tradition, she told Mr S:
I’m not the only Labour person to be elected to the Court of Common Council, but one of the only ones decent enough to be blatant about it.
Ouch. One of those who was elected without the Labour banner was Emily Benn, granddaughter of the late Tony, who chose to run as an independent. This is despite her standing as a candidate for Labour three times in 2010, 2014 and 2015. She lost two parliamentary elections but won the Croydon council contest: perhaps her party’s endorsement isn’t worth all that much. A veteran of Oxford, Harvard and the UBS Investment Bank, Benn’s own politics seem decidedly more Blairite than Bennite.
Still, Mr S suspects that, nearly 40 years after his supporters wrote the ‘longest suicide note in history,’ the late Mr Benn would enjoy the spectacle of his heirs finally mastering the ‘commanding heights of the economy.’ The City will just be hoping that – contrary to the 1983 Labour manifesto – ‘reformed democratic system’ of the corporation isn’t on the agenda any time soon.
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