Just before last May’s general election, membership of the Labour Party stood at 201,293. By January this year, just eight months later, it had rocketed to over 388,000. In the past week alone it is reported to have jumped again, this time by over 60,000. While some of those new members are undoubtedly signing up to vote against Corbyn (particularly following a story by the Daily Mirror urging people to do just that), it is believed most have joined up to back Corbyn in any leadership bid.
Under Labour Party rules, any registered supporter – signed up for just £3 – has a vote in Labour leadership elections, along with Labour Party full members and members of organisations and trade unions affiliated to the party. However, registered supporters do NOT have a vote in the machinery of their local Constituency Labour Party – the local systems that select local party officers, council candidates, and parliamentary candidates.
This time, that fact matters.
I do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn “lost” the confidence of the Parliamentary Labour Party because I don’t think that he ever had it. Most of them were unhappy at his win last year, and have been waiting for this moment. The “spontaneous” resignations of ministers “in solidarity” with Hilary Benn were nothing of the sort – it was part of deliberately timed (albeit badly timed) attempt to force Corbyn out. New revelations that show that the “Angela4Leader”campaign website domain was registered before Hilary Benn’s sacking seems to bear this out. The PLP were never prepared to back Corbyn because Corbyn wants to fundamentally change the way parliamentary politics works.
While Angela Eagle and Owen Smith argue the toss about who is best placed to challenge Jeremy Corbyn, most commentators (and party polls) show Corbyn would likely not only win, but could actually win with an increased mandate – thanks to members, supporters and affiliates who do that one thing – vote for him.
But that will not be enough.
All those orchestrated statements and briefings against Jeremy, all the letters and emails of resignation, all those press interviews demanding he stand aside cannot be unsaid, cannot be un-written. We will be in a position where we have a leader that the majority of Labour activists and supporters wants, but a range of MPs that have made it clear that they cannot and will not work with him.
It is those MPs that will next have to seek a mandate from those same members, supporters and affiliates in order to stand in any general election. This is where the local party structures matter.
If Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters, having seen him returned as leader, become dormant again thinking the job is done, we risk many of those same MPs, with the same mindset, returned after an election to have the same divisions and tensions between leader and PLP. That would be dysfunctional, and would not allow any progress to be made on the anti-austerity agenda and on our desire for a new politics.
We need to ensure that our MPs, our parliamentary candidates, and our councillors hear loud and clear the message that we not only support Corbyn the man, but we support his belief in reforming politics, devolving power, and championing social justice – and that needs to be in evidence at every level of the Labour movement, not just at the very top.
That means people like you and I have to become more active in our own local branches and CLPs, because that is how real change will happen: filling key officer posts with reformers, filling council chambers with reformers, and giving Jeremy a group of MPs that share his vision and values. Without that, he will remain isolated and impotent to advance the cause of radical change, cleaner democracy, and social justice.
If you are not already look around. There is so much to be done.
Simon Bowkett
Simon Bowkett
