The big question the leadership contenders have to answer

By Darrell Goodliffe

So, the various contenders are lining-up and setting out their stalls for the role of party leader and leader of the opposition. I think there is broad consensus that the nature of the contest has to be a real debate about the future direction of our party and that it should take as much time as necessary. Although a coronation is the last thing this party needs it does also need strong leadership in place to deal with the radically changing environment in the wider political world. The interim leadership has a vital task to perform in that it has to ‘steady the ship’ but also move our party quickly from being on the backfoot to back on the offensive; far from being disheartened, Labourites should be overwhelmed by all there is to do in terms of integrating new members and exposing the complete bankruptcy of Britain’s new government. The rapid lift-off of the ‘Noto55‘ campaign shows that already there is plenty for us to get stuck into.

Although there has to be an internal aspect to the contest, the discussion about Labour’s way forward should also include the wider public – the people need to frame our choices as much as the party. Before the general election, and pretty much throughout the entire negotiations that led to the formation of the new coalition government, I was very much in a small minority thinking that the Liberal Democrats would inevitably form a governing coalition with the Conservatives. Alot of people looked at the aims and ambitions of the Liberal Democrats (and the composition of their support) and concluded that an alliance with Labour was far more likely. However, those people failed to take account of the pronouncements of Nick Clegg and his very clear view that Labourism was a busted flush and that a return to a variant of classical liberalism was the ‘progressive future’; something that made an alliance with the Conservatives far more logical and far more temperamentally and culturally likely.

Clegg won’t get his way on the Liberal Democrats superseding Labour as the main progressive party in this country. In fact, his actions will produce diametrically the opposite result – they will sow the seeds for Labour’s rebirth and renewal. Already the fragile coalition that was the Lib Dems is falling apart as most progressively-minded members head for the exits and into the arms of either Labour or in some cases the Greens. And bear this in mind; this is during a period which is supposed to be a honeymoon for a new government and before the full extent of how much the Liberal Democrats have compromised themselves and their principles becomes evident in the decisions they – along with their new friends – take, and have to implement. Electoral oblivion beckons as the eventual cost of Clegg accepting his 30 pieces of silver.

So, our new leader will have an historic opportunity to frame not just the direction of the Labour Party but also to have a large bearing on the direction progressive politics take in this country generally, and in opposition to the coalition specifically. Therefore, their credentials have to be measured against this task as much as any other, as do their actual ideas. Are they going to be able to lead Labour in a direction which allows our party to reclaim its place as the fulcrum of progressive politics and eventually to win back government, not just for us as a party but as a cause? This is the central question that each candidate has to answer.