Middle class candidates control the levers of power in the Labour Party – and Working Class representation is dying in a ditch

The controversy Labour has been embroiled in over the last week isn’t completely the fault of Unite or Len McCluskey. It’s the result of a long term problem. Dave Quayle, chair of Unite’s political committee was right to identify ‘middle class academics and professionals’ as being over represented in the party. Indeed, they have such a grip on the levers of power and influence in the party that they’ve allowed working class representation to die in a ditch. It’s been demolished and trampled on by a stampeding herd of ambitious political buffalo on election cycle migration.

This is the grievance that justifies Unite’s political strategy. This grievance shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

The fact that Unite is able to claim that there are not enough working class candidates is the fault of the hacks and careerists who populate Labour party ranks. Lip service had been paid regularly to widening representation. If serious and genuine efforts were made to develop strong working class Labour parliamentary candidates we wouldn’t be where we are.

According to House of Commons research there are only 25 MPs who used to be manual workers, a decrease of 75% since 1979. The lack of working class parliamentary candidates is a crisis for the party and the country. It needs to be sorted out quickly.

There’s a well-worn political career track. It usually starts at a good university, leads to an MP’s office and ends with a Labour seat. It’s an unfortunate state of affairs but Unite’s approach of pushing for working class candidates only if they’re fully aligned with Unite’s position is just as bad. The idea that being working class means being completely in support of every Unite policy is nonsense of the highest order. Indeed, political career treadmills exist through unions too.

Both spheres are worlds of insiders and vested interests. I’m not saying that the people involved are bad or that they don’t want to make the world a better place but both systems are harmful.

Last year, in desperation, genuine despair and good faith I supported the idea of working class short lists. A desperate, perhaps naive, solution, that aimed to get things sorted out for the 2015 parliamentary selection cycle. The reaction made clear that it was a non-starter – which is, of course, fair enough. If taken to its logical extreme it could lead to a ‘Labour realness points’ ranking system of the kind Hopi Sen amusingly constructed.

Nonetheless, we need to develop leaders who reflect the communities they represent. This means fewer Oxbridge PPE types and fewer candidates almost completely reliant on union support.

Neither type of candidate will go away, both are needed. The union link is essential and we can’t let this incidents like this create anti-union sentiment. But to keep the party and parliament strong we need a diversity of backgrounds and outlooks, not the binary choice we seem to have at the moment. Although, it’s worth taking a moment to remember there are candidates who don’t fit either mould.

We need selection processes to be truly transparent to ensure they’re not the subject of insidious manipulation. This transparency needs to be independently assessed. The Labour Party, as it stands, clearly can’t be trusted to do this.

It’s too late for 2015 but we need to start thinking about how we can prevent a situation like this developing before 2020.