It is a coincidence that both the leader of the house Boris Johnson and the leader of the opposition Sir Keir Starmer have been facing rough time. While Boris Johnson is facing a showdown with furious Conservative MPs over his government’s chaotic handling of Covid-19, as a new poll shows the Tories have surrendered a massive lead over Labour in just five months, the new Labour leader’s preference for “constructive” opposition is drawing public criticism from the Corbynites and left’s resistance to Starmerism is taking shape
The recent string of U-turns of Boris had left many colleagues in despair, with some struggling to support and defend their government to constituents. According to the aggrieved MPs, U-turn was unsustainable. Even the members counted as a firm Johnson loyalist, feel: “often it looks like this government licks its finger and sticks it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. This is not a sustainable way to approach the business of governing and government.”
Conservative MPs, including many ex-ministers with extensive experience inside government, are also increasingly angry that their voices and concerns, and those of senior Whitehall officials with many years of service, are being ignored and dismissed as power and decision-making is increasingly centred on a tight but inexperienced group within Downing Street. This is the first time Labour have drawn level since July 2019 when both main parties were in freefall and losing votes to the Brexit party and the Liberal Democrats.
The fall of the GDP by 22 per cent has simply added to the crisis and some Conservative members feel that no serious effort is being made to overcome crisis. The government has not so far initiated any measured move to fight out the Covid 19. It is still ravaging the economy of the country.
Johnson is due to appear before the powerful House of Commons liaison committee of senior backbenchers on 16 September, during which he will be pressured to explain his government’s shortcomings by MPs of all parties. In March just after Johnson imposed the full lockdown, the Conservatives were surging ahead on 54% of the vote, with Labour at 28%. At the time Johnson’s personal ratings were also very positive, but are now consistently well behind those of the Labour leader, Keir Starmer.
The leak of the report into anti-Corbyn sentiment among officials implies that Starmer would find uniting the party more difficult than the size of his mandate. However the gain of 26 points to Labour has proved to be of short gain. If the party sources are to be believed, notwithstanding his efforts to unite, actually Starmer has signalled war on Labour’s left with the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey. It is a deliberate attempt to root out Corbynism from positions of influence
The hurry to take action against Long-Bailey shows that Starmer intends to take control by breaking the left in Labour before everything else. He felt confident enough to do it because he has successfully removed other Corbyn supporters from the shadow cabinet and shifted Labour rapidly towards the centre.
His success in showing gate to his rivals with so little resistance shows that the alliance between the parliamentary party and the party bureaucracy, with the support of the media and other parts of the establishment, has firmly re-established control of the Party. Significantly the anti-Corbyn leaders who had made the antisemitism a big issue while he was the leader of the party are maintaining a passive silence on this. It appears that dealing with antisemitism is not the central issue for Starmer. Recent developments make it clear that the claims of the case against Corbyn and the left of the party did not stand up and that the right had deliberately and irresponsibly used the issue against the leadership.
It is this alliance backed by right wing trade union leaders that has ensured Labour’s present leadership. Corbynism was a unique moment. A membership insurgency against the right – powered by Corbyn’s association with the mass campaigns against war and austerity – succeeded in getting Corbyn elected as leader in 2015. Ironically during the last five years this upsurge could not transform the party itself. The Labour right is not in the mood to relent. It has still been sabotaging the Corbyn project. The allegation that Labour got defeated due to left wing still continues to stand.
It is very important now that the left recognises that the consolidation of Starmer’s leadership means the attempt to radicalise the Labour Party is over. Meanwhile the issue of sacking of Rebecca has been receiving wider support. Recently the Labour left-wingers had a showdown meeting with Starmer and after coming out of the meeting they said ‘significant disagreement remains’ with Keir Starmer over the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey. The Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs has made it clear that Rebecca Long-Bailey should not have been sacked and should be reinstated.
The conventional view is that Starmer faces a crisis. Most Labour members however want to defend the 2019 manifesto and they are also willing to buy the Corbynite conspiracy theory that “Blairites” in the party worked to undermine it from within, handing victory to the Tories. (IPA Service)
Congress’ UP Unit Rises Up Against Ghulam Nabi Azad 