James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will anyone fight, fight and fight again to save what’s left of New Labour?

Blairites are coming to terms with the consequences of their ‘lack of moral authority’ – and emotional intelligence

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thegreatbritishkowtow/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Stephen Bush discuss the upcoming Labour party conference” startat=1650]

Listen

[/audioplayer]Five years ago this Saturday, Ed Miliband was crowned Labour leader. Three days later, he had to deliver his first conference speech in that role. It was a distinctly underwhelming address. Miliband was overshadowed by his brother, who ticked Harriet Harman off for clapping. To try to give its new leader a better start this time round, Labour decided to announce the result of its leadership contest a fortnight before the party conference.

But two weeks has been nowhere near enough time for Labour to come to terms with what has happened. The Parliamentary Labour Party is still in a state of shock about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. One senior Labour MP fumes, ‘It’s beyond a joke, but it is now my life,’ while even Corbyn’s early backers still can’t quite believe that he has actually won and that they are now in charge.

For these reasons you won’t be able to judge Labour’s conference by the normal rules. If there is some sophisticated conference grid designed to get the party’s new message across, the shadow cabinet are not aware of it. The media’s old party conference game of ‘find the split’ will be pointless this year. Labour frontbenchers won’t bother to hide their disagreement with their leader on a whole slew of issues. One figure close to many on the front bench says, ‘We’re not living in a world where there’s collective responsibility across the piste.’ Rather, they say that shadow cabinet members have agreed to serve as long as they accept the new leader’s policy agenda in their own particular brief.

Corbyn’s conference address will not, if his leadership to date is any guide, abide by the normal rules either.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in