New Statesman

Also known as the gutter press, the papers present the viewpoints of various segments of society, and give MPs an opportunity to write directly to them.
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Blakesley
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New Statesman

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Dame Amelia Lockhart
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Re: New Statesman

Post by Dame Amelia Lockhart »

No Return to Centrism
April 2019

By Grace Blakeley

It was Jeremy Corbyn that returned Labour to the people, and delivered one of the most surprising election results in the history of our country. Labour cannot abandon the platform and approach that delivered a mass-movement for change and ending neoliberalism.

Whether it was the response to Grenfell, to attacks on working people across the country, or to the budgets which slashed public services, both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell called it right. Labour must keep the course, and avoid any return to the vapid centrism of the past and of Change UK. There can be no compromise with them. Tackling the climate emergency, dealing systemic racism, and ending precarity in work is too important - and only socialists have the solutions.

Whatever happens, the central imperative faced by socialists will be to maintain the integrity of the movement and expand it beyond its current boundaries. We need to defend the policies Labour has adopted, and convince communities of the benefits of them. We can end Thatcherism and neoliberalism is we have the confidence to end it.

We also need to have a full democratisation of the party. Too often the party machinery, aided by its allies in the parliamentary party, ignored the demands of the mass membership. They adopted dangerously right-wing attitudes towards the rights of members. Full accountability of MPs to the left is necessary for Labour to win an election - and deliver a better world. And we need to place members in charge across the entire labour movement, including trade unions, because only then will it survive the economic dislocations of the coming years.

That will be made easier if Labour elects a proper socialist as leader. But if the Labour establishment is able to force a centrist on members, organisations like Momentum will be at the forefront and ready to resist in defence of the policies that gave us the astonishing 2017 result.

And if necessary, we can focus on building the extra-parliamentary left that Ralph Miliband called for a few decades ago. He believed in the hopelessness of parliamentary socialism. It is only recently that the British left invested its hopes in Labour. The party should remember that they have no god-given right to exist. They must embody the views and opinions of the true left in this country.

Whatever happens over the next few months, we are still living through the interregnum between worlds and the choice remains for Labour: socialism or barbarism. Let’s hope they make the right choice.
Dame Amelia Lockhart
Labour MP for Bishop Auckland (1992 - )
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Re: New Statesman

Post by Dame Amelia Lockhart »

Unpredictable Labour Race
April 2019


History will be made when Labour announces its next Leader of the Labour Party. The first permanent female Leader will be elected in the party’s 119 year existence. Either Hilda Harrington, MP for Southampton Test, or Emily Greenwood, the MP for Workington, will be Labour’s next Leader of the Opposition.

There is no doubt that Harrington has set the initial terms of the leadership debate. By focusing on mandatory re-selection, Harrington has won over many admirers on the far left of the party, seeing her as the only hope to “democratising” Labour once and for all. But they’ve many some allies in the centre of the party uncomfortable: they fear she could deliver the party back into the hands of Corbyn supporters at a time when his hood over Labour weakened due to anti-Semitism.

There are also concerns about what Harrington actually stands for, and what a manifesto with her stamp on it would look like. Talking about being the party together around a shared platform decided at Conference is one thing, but being Labour leader requires actually believing in policy change something surely?

Speaking about Harrington’s campaign, one Labour MP said: “I know where she stands on anti-Semitism, that’s great. A one strike and your out approach, enforced by an independent process, is exactly what Labour needs. I know where she stands on re-selection - she’s wrong and many MPs will resist it - but we know where she is. I just wish she brought the same clarity and certainty to the things Labour should stand for. I’ve tried and failed to get one concrete policy idea out of her, and I haven’t. If we don’t know what she stands for, how will the public?”

Emily Greenwood has different challenges: members know what she stands for. Unlike Harrington, Greenwood released a comprehensive platform - although not that comprehensive as there was no mention of social security or child poverty. Her tests for the future trading relationship with the EU have provided a specificity that few - including many in the government - were expecting. How Labour could translate that into an agenda to hold the Prime Minister to account as he negotiates the future with the EU remains to be seen. But it’s clear that Greenwood has done some thinking about it, and it’s up to the Government - and Harrington - to show an similar consideration.

So we know what she stands for, but voters aren’t sure if she has the grit or the fight for these ideas. “Is she just a bit to nice to take on a cruel, nasty Tory government?”, asked one Labour member. Bringing Britain back together might just be an aspiration too far in a Brexit world, where many - both in Labour and the country - struggle to discuss politics harmoniously.

Hanging over both candidates, however, is: can they win over many of the voters who left Labour in 2010, 2015 and 2017? These voters are diverse: those who live in southern marginals in 2010, Scottish voters in 2015, and socially conservative voters in Labour’s traditional heartlands in 2017. Can Harrington or Greenwood unite Hull and Hamstead, North West Derbyshire and Leeds North West, Tynemouth and Truro and Falmouth? Can they show they care about voters aspirations, while meeting the demands of an activist base that wants Labour to stay left?

In contrast, the race for the Deputy leadership is a much more subdued affair. Neither candidate has said much publicly, focusing on winning over party members through the hundreds of closed-door meetings that make up Labour. With one Labour member saying, “I haven’t really decided who I’m backing for Deputy. It’s a bit boring and quiet really. Should it matter to me if it doesn’t appear to matter to them?”

Simon Godwin, the MP for Hove, has indicated that child poverty will be a core focus if he is elected Deputy, while his speech to the TUC was very well received by listeners. Dr James Webster, the MP for Aberavon, is focusing in environmental sustainability. Early indications suggest that Mr Godwin is popular with more remain, big city CLPs, while Dr Webster is gaining support from rural CLPs without Labour MPs and CLPs in the old heartlands.
Dame Amelia Lockhart
Labour MP for Bishop Auckland (1992 - )
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