Why Labour needs more people like Ken

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Last week I was pretty angry with Ken Livingstone. In the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death he referred to Barack Obama as a “mobster”. I said I thought he was being foolish.

I still think that was a mistake. I disagree with those who have said sites like LabourList shouldn’t criticise leading Labour figures. On the contrary, we should take senior members of our party to task if we think they’ve made a wrong call.

But last week also reminded me of something I’ve thought for a long time. The Labour Party needs more people like Ken Livingstone, and in the years to come that need is going to become ever stronger..

As we’ve established I won’t always agree with Ken. The odds are that you won’t either. That’s because Ken is a one off. And in a world of robotic Politics-500 automatons he’s a human being, with all of that entails. That also makes him an incredibly popular and electorally successful politician.

A friend recently described Ken as the embodiment of London politics. Initially my hyperbole-antennae was twitching like mad, but then I thought of Livingstone at the GLC, the years of defending Londoners against Thatcherism, the first mayoral race – and the fact that when I see the mayor of London logo I still think of Ken not Boris. That’s the kind of affinity that Londoner’s have with Ken. That’s why he was able to vastly outstrip the Labour vote back in 2008 when he could easily have been washed away on a tide of discontent. That’s why Labour members overwhelmingly backed him to stand again in 2012.

Politics can often seem like a career these days. There’s even a loose career path if you look closely enough. And yet Ken – who has, after all, spent most of his life in politics – has never for one moment looked like a career politician. There’s nothing false about him. He doesn’t say things that are always popular, but conversely he is popular. Because he’s authentic. Because he doesn’t scream politician. And in a cynical world (especially with regards to politics) that’s incredibly powerful.

In Boris Johnson, Livingstone faces a politician who, in this one respect, is similar. They’re both known simply by their first names. They’re both characters in an often bland and inoffensive political world. They both have a habit of saying things that make even their supporters toes curl. Yet Ken won’t need to be told to get off his backside and stop a tube strike, spend a huge proportion of his time meeting bankers rather than holding public meetings and he won’t hire a right-wing council leader as chief of staff (the kind who charges kids to play). And that’s all recent stuff too.

And while Ken might say that Obama behaved like a “mobster”, he won’t do what Boris did, and use terms like “whack job” and “sleeping with the fishes”. Because while Ken is a human being and an excellent mayor, Boris is an excellent columnist and a poor mayor. I am not qualified to comment on Boris Johnson as a human being.

In a world where the public has lost faith in politics, and the identikit politicians become less popular and less believable, there will be a need for people like Ken Livingstone who the electorate can relate to and believe in. We’ll need to get used to politicians who don’t always tow the party line or speak in pithy soundbites. As party supporters we’ll need to become more relaxed about divergent viewpoints from our frontline politicians. But at the same time, they’ll need to get used to us telling them when we think they’re wrong.

Doesn’t that sound like a better, more mature state of affairs? Doesn’t that sound like a better politics? You’ll probably say, dear reader, that it’s a pipe dream, and it probably is. But it’s one I can believe in…