LEO MCKINSTRY: The week that proved the Corbynistas are still hellbent on hijacking Labour
Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week was supposed to be a celebration of a historic victory.
Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week was supposed to be a celebration of a historic victory.Instead, yesterday morning it turned into an arena for angry dissent against the leadership.
Discord and disillusion are swelling within Labour’s ranks, fed not only by Sir Keir Starmer’s inept mismanagement of the winter fuel allowance controversy, but also by the desire of Left-wingers to exact revenge for the way he marginalised them in Opposition.
The party’s Marxist former leader Jeremy Corbyn may not be present at the conference, having been expelled from Labour for claiming the scale of anti-Semitism in the party had been overstated for political reasons, but his spirit looms over the event.
Two incidents vividly captured the fractious mood of the party. The first came in the chorus of boos that filled the venue when it was announced that the debate on the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance for most pensioners – originally scheduled for today – was to be delayed until the final afternoon of proceedings tomorrow.
This slot is known as ‘the graveyard shift’ because, by then, many of the delegates will already have gone home.
The party’s Marxist former leader Jeremy Corbyn may not be present at the conference, but his spirit looms over the event, writes LEO MCKINSTRY
Perhaps the most dangerous foes for Starmer are Corbynistas, whose uncompromising socialist outlook stand in dramatic contrast to the PMs sleazy opportunism
The second flashpoint yesterday occurred during the keynote speech by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves. She was loudly interrupted by a pro-Palestinian heckler, who demanded a ban on all arms sales by Britain to Israel.
He was bundled out of the hall by security guards, but not before he had provided a graphic illustration of Labour’s bitter split on the Middle East.
Like the winter fuel allowance, the Middle East serves as a catalyst for rebellion. In the last Parliament, the largest revolt by Labour MPs took place nearly a year ago when 57 of them defied the party whip to back the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Acrimony is likely to intensify in the coming months, as the Government struggles to cope with the tough realities of office. And perhaps the most dangerous foes for Starmer are the Corbynistas.
To his supporters, Corbyn’s almost Puritan personal integrity and his uncompromising socialist outlook stand in dramatic contrast to the sleazy opportunism of Starmer.
Corbyn drew a damning parallel between Starmer and Tony Blair when he tweeted about the removal of the anti-Israel heckler in Liverpool yesterday: ‘The brave protester reminds me of the party member who was dragged out of conference in 2005 for protesting the war in Iraq. Who was on the right side of history?’
The ejected member in 2005 had been Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year-old socialist, peace campaigner and Jewish refugee from Germany, who subsequently backed Corbyn’s successful bid for the party leadership in 2015.
Even though Corbyn won that contest by a huge margin among the grassroots party membership, the Parliamentary Labour Party never accepted him. His eventual expulsion by Starmer was the culmination of a long campaign that featured leadership challenges and no-confidence votes.
Now, both inside and outside the party, the Left is eager to get its own back against the party establishment, using every weapon at its disposal.
The seriousness of the trouble facing the Labour leadership was emphasised by Sharon Graham, the Left-wing boss of Unite, who said yesterday there is ‘real anger’ over ‘the blatant manoeuvre to block debate on winter fuel cuts’.
Just as potent is the charge that Labour is more interested in fawning over the rich than in helping the poor.
Indeed, the veteran MP Diane Abbott accused Starmer at the weekend of being ‘in the pocket of millionaires’.
Other vehicles for friction with the leadership include workplace rights, nationalisation of utilities, support for public-sector pay claims and the expansion of the welfare state, which was the cause of another Left-wing rebellion in Parliament when seven Labour MPs voted to end the two-child benefit cap.
Among the seven were Corbyn’s long-standing ally John McDonnell and former leadership contender Rebecca Long-Bailey.‘
Several major trade unions are led by Corbyn backers, such as Mick Lynch, the boss of RMT
The Left is coming for Starmer. Labour’s woes are just beginning,’ declared Aaron Bastani, arch-Corbynista and co-founder of the radical media outlet Novara, in an article yesterday.
The fight against the Labour leader will occur on several fronts. In Parliament, a key role will be played by the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, originally founded to support the cause of Tony Benn in the 1980s.Within the party, the Corbynista pressure group Momentum still has a significant presence.
Meanwhile, several key trade unions are led by Corbyn backers. Maryam Eslamdoust, the leader of the TSSA, a travel and transport union, worked as an adviser to Corbyn, while Mick Lynch, head of the militant rail union the RMT, campaigned for Corbyn in Islington North at the election.‘
Jeremy is integral to the Labour movement, which belongs to us. It doesn’t belong to machine politicians that try to drop our values,’ Lynch told a rally.
Yesterday, of course, Lynch also set out his chilling plan for unions to seize effective control of the UK economy.
Peter Mandelson once said he aspired to put the Left ‘in a sealed tomb’. But, as the beleaguered current leader is beginning to recognise, the radical vanguard is still very much alive.
