The PLP may be angry, but Harman was right on Woolas

By Claire Spencer / @thedancingflea

Loud whispers have been emerging from last night’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, as MPs turned on deputy leader Harriet Harman for her strong public stance on Phil Woolas. Woolas was convicted of lying to voters during the campaign to retain his parliamentary seat of Oldham & Saddleworth. He has since reported his intention to seek a judicial review.

But Harman, speaking to Andrew Marr, made it clear that the outcome of the judicial review would make little difference to Woolas’ future in the Labour Party. “It is not part of Labour’s politics for somebody to be telling lies to get themselves elected,” she said, firmly. I would have gone further – it wasn’t just the lies, or even just the racial nature of those lies – but the cynical and calculated way he and his election team played on, and even enhanced, real racial tensions in their own community.

It would seem that Harriet’s words did not go down well with a number of Labour MPs. Joe Murphy, writing for the London Evening Standard, reported that these MPs were “angry that she virtually killed off Mr Woolas’ hopes of standing again for Labour in an interview over the weekend.” It has been pointed out that this is not exactly an endorsement for what Woolas did – rather, anger with Harriet for arriving at a decision on the party’s behalf before the judicial process was complete.

Speaking on behalf of people before you consult them is one thing, but does the stage of the judicial process really matter? When Woolas and his campaigning team put that leaflet together, they associated its message with the Labour Party and its values. That may well be legal (particularly if you succeed in changing the law to make it legal) – but that doesn’t mean it represents Labour, or that we have to accept it and move on. When someone uses racial tensions to gain votes, we owe it to our values and the values of people who voted for us to ensure that such practices do not occur.

That is why I agree with Harriet, judicial review or no. There is absolutely no doubt that Phil Woolas endorsed that leaflet, bearing that message, during the general election campaign. As such, he must be accountable for those actions.

I am forcibly reminded of the behaviour of certain individuals in the banking sector – they failed, but there were no real consequences to that. Now, they are back to their bad old ways, somehow endorsed by the taxpayer. Similarly, if there are not meaningful consequences to playing on racial tensions to win elections, then it will carry on happening – and our communities will foot the social bill.

So price up Labour’s values, defenders of Woolas – because that is what he is on the hook for. If he doesn’t pay, who should?