Cruddas: We’re setting up an English Labour Party

UPDATE: Whatever is being planned, it seems Cruddas will not be going through official party channels. A Labour spokesperson has confirmed that “there are currently no plans to create an English Labour Party.”

So it sounds like what is being set up will be a move to convince the party to give in to calls to form an English Labour Party, rather than having official backing already.

An English Labour Party is being set set up, according to former Shadow Cabinet member Jon Cruddas. The Dagenham and Rainham MP told an audience at the IPPR think tank this afternoon that the creation of a distinct Labour Party in England would be happening “imminently” – before castigating himself that it was “not something I should have said”.

Jon Cruddas announces there will be an English Labour Party before adding perhaps that’s “not something I should have said”…#IPPR

— Maya Goodfellow (@MayaGoodfellow) June 24, 2015

Asked by chair Mary Riddell about his advocacy of an ‘English Labour’, Cruddas pointed out that “in the rule book” there is a Scottish Labour and a Welsh Labour but not a party for Labour in England, adding: “We are going to do it… it will be imminent.”

It is not clear who the “we” in that remark is – Cruddas left the frontbench after the election to begin an independent review into Labour’s defeat. A Labour source told LabourList that what Cruddas has said is “not in any way official”.

Cruddas was pushed on his slip during the question and answer session that followed. He said he couldn’t say much else on the topic, but it is being driven by a number of people, and will be a very significant part of the infrastructure.

“It’ll be pushed along over the next month,” he said, adding: “It seems to me it will end up being put in the rule book like Scottish and Welsh Labour.” Although he noted that control over the rule book was not something he had.

Cruddas is not the only person to support the formation of an English Labour Party. John Denham, who stood down this year, was a vocal proponent of the idea, and current MPs including Steve Reed and deputy leadership candidate Ben Bradshaw are also thought to support it.