By Richard Burgon
Calamity
after Conservative calamity brings home just what difficulty the Tories’
Thatcherite administration is in. On February 14, the Tories suffered their
10th parliamentary defeat on Brexit. So commonplace have government defeats
become that many hardly bat an eyelid. Government defeats are the new norm. The
Prime Minister is increasingly trapped by the hard-line European Research Group
of Conservative MPs, who seem to be at the forefront of her mind much more than
the public good.
But
it is not just on Brexit that the Conservatives’ failures are ever clearer. New
figures showed the slowest economic growth since 2012 at a measly 1.4 per cent.
And the bad news keeps coming. Honda announced it will close its Swindon plant
with the loss of thousands of jobs, following on from earlier bad news from Nissan.
Over
the weekend — also on Business, Energy and Industrial Secretary Greg Clark’s
watch — British airline Flybmi ceased operating, partly blaming the current
lack of certainty on Brexit. People across the country are rightly worried
about these darkening economic clouds.
Defence
Secretary Gavin Williamson then chose to put the country’s economic position
further at risk with his bizarre attention-seeking threat of sending a military
ship to the Pacific. The result of this pathetic political posturing was that
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s trade visit to Beijing was cancelled.
We
have also seen Department for Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd confirm
what so many of us knew already — that foodbank use has increased due to the
government’s universal credit roll-out, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling
struggling to defend his farcical collapsed shipless Seaborne Freight contract
and my opposite number, Justice Secretary David Gauke, dealing with the
collapse of private probation company Working Links in the latest chapter of
failure of our all too Americanised justice system.
So,
with the government increasingly on the ropes, it was incredibly disappointing
to see a splinter from the Labour Party with some members of Parliament
leaving.
I’m
sorry to see anybody choose to leave the Parliamentary Labour Party. Any split
is sad news and can only make it more likely that the Conservatives stay in
office, hurting the people up and down the country that MPs see in constituency
advice sessions in their communities week in, week out.
No
one strand within the coalition of socialists, trade unionists and social
democrats that the Labour Party has always been — and should always be — has a
monopoly on wisdom or all the answers. Harold Wilson was correct when he said
that a political party, like a bird, needs two wings to fly and the Labour
Party leadership is always willing to listen, as John McDonnell has
passionately emphasised in recent days.
And
the party absolutely needs to listen — and act swiftly — in relation to
anti-semitism. One anti-semite in our party is one anti-semite too many. And
the party needs to listen to those like Luciana Berger who have been subject to
wholly unacceptable racism or abuse.
The
Labour Party always need new ideas and perspectives. It was new ideas and
perspectives that helped us a gain three million votes and the biggest swing to
Labour since 1945 at the last general election. Anything that can help build on
that package of policies to get even more support, votes and seats at the next
general election is very welcome. But those ideas must be about building on the
new direction the party has moved in to win new support, not turning back on
those popular polices.
The
idea of a so-called CNP — Chuka’s New Party — has been mooted around
Westminster for a long time. While not yet a fully fledged party — and oddly
registered as a private company — Chuka’s Coalition has little to offer apart
from a rejection of Labour’s successful ideas for a country that works for the
many not the few that have proved so popular. Launching his new political
vehicle, Umunna declared that millions are crying out for a new policies
distinct from those of the Labour Party. But Mike Gapes — no Robin Cook — still
celebrates the Iraq war and cosies up to the Saudi regime with its horrendous
human rights record.
Chris
Leslie is still deeply uncomfortable with Labour’s anti-austerity approach to
the economy. Angela Smith opposes the popular, GMB-backed policy of bringing
water back into public ownership and has got off to a shameful start by
describing black and minority ethnic people as “having a funny tint.”
Chuka’s
Coalition is not even seeking to be a new pole of social democracy but, with
its alliance with Conservatives who have voted for Tory cut after cut, it is a
blatant attempt to create a “national government. When that was last done in
peacetime, it was used as an excuse for deep cuts and attacks on working-class
communities. For that reason, Ramsay McDonald’s name continues to ring through
the labour movement for all the wrong reasons.
Chuka’s
Coalition is clearly designed to prevent an anti-austerity Labour government
even coming to power. It will fail. On so many key issues, it seems that the
Independent Group will not really be on the centre left or liberal left or very
much in tune with public opinion in 2019. Calls to embrace austerity economics
and return to the failed foreign policy of the past should not be heeded.
What’s
needed is a Labour government, which is the only vehicle that can defeat the
Tories and deliver radical change. And that’s what we’ll keep on fighting for.
I know that Parliamentary Labour Party colleagues — whether Bennites,
Crosslandites or Healeyites — will do the same.
Even
in the dark days of the aftermath of the decision to launch war on Iraq many
stayed in the Labour Party, knowing it was the best vehicle to defeat the
Tories. No-one should do anything which makes more likely the survival of this
Conservative government. Our unity across the party with the single-minded
focus on ousting this cruel Tory government is the best way of delivering for
the communities we all came into politics to serve. (IPA Service)
The writer is shadow justice secretary and MP
for Leeds East.
Courtesy: Morning Star
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