What is a Deputy Leader for?

There are five big selection contests happening in the Labour Party at the moment. For Leader, Deputy Leader, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party and for their Deputy and for our candidate for Mayor of London.

We have all been inundated with emails, texts and phone calls and our Twitter and Facebook timelines are filled with little other than the leadership and to an extent these other campaigns. I don’t know what it’s like in Scotland, but in London, the effect of the mayoral selection too has just made the bombardment even more intensive. There are six candidates running for that. Six more people calling, texting and emailing me.

The Leadership contest has got particularly nasty over the last couple of weeks. Whether from the Left  or the Right the abuse we seem content to hurl at each other over the leadership is despicable and self-destructive. This is a fight no one will win and the real losers will be those Labour should be representing in our towns, cities and shires. There is a real sense that none of the candidates quite fit the bill. There are no “heavyweights” and no obvious frontrunner that can unite Party and country behind them.

Given this  – and the lasting impact this may have on the Labour Party – insignificant attention is currently being paid to the other national contest – for that of Deputy Leader.

This job could be the most poisonous of all chalices. Whoever is elected leader they are likely to find themselves at the head of a divided and disgruntled Party. The Deputy doesn’t set policy and so most of the questions they have found themselves facing are not about their views on Trident, the NHS and Welfare, but on Party management, campaigning and relationships between the Party machine and the members.

These challenges are enormous and will not be fixed easily. Labour is culturally in a terrible place where our rhetoric of empowerment – for communities or members – almost never matches the lived experience of those who seek to give their time, skills and experience to Labour. It has been in recognising this that all of the Deputy Leadership candidates have excelled throughout this campaign.

At the Fabian Deputy Leadership Hustings I attended last week there was little talk of policy. Sure there were glimpses here and there which helped the candidates position themselves on the political spectrum for those judging this contest on such things.

But mostly what they discussed – openly and honestly – is what has gone wrong in the Labour Party and what they personally would commit to doing to put it right. There were differences of emphasis. Caroline Flint and Stella Creasy had a quite cross exchange about whether our emphasis should be on finding the next generation of star MPs or of developing all our talents across the Party. Frankly a fine dilemma to have.

There was also a real understanding of the divisions – natural and party-made between different types of CLPs. Ben Bradshaw expressed a worry that Labour had fallen into a safe seat mentality – where we assume that what works in the seats where we weigh the votes would also work in the marginals. While Angela Eagle was concerned that internally, the Party had been too focused on the marginals, and had focused less on those “challenging” CLPs where we may have fewer voters but we do still have members who fight to take the Labour message to the public wherever they are*.

Ultimately what has been clear in the Deputy Leadership is that the old divisions of Brownites and Blairites are breaking down within the Parliamentary Party. While at some points I could have absolutely told you where each of these candidates sat within these divisions, not it seems anacronistic. Like telling you what GCSEs they achieved. It’s a thing, it happened, it is no longer what matters or qualifies them for the job.

Ultimately the choice among the candidates is for what we see the Deputy Leader doing and being. And for many that will be a proxy for what we see the Party doing and being. We will not elect a Deputy who will set policy, but they will have an important job to play in Party management. So pick a deputy whose vision for Party membership most closely matches yours. Then – if they are elected – make sure they stick to it.

Changing the culture of our Party is a huge and difficult job. But if we are to once again become a cohesive and positive force for good, it will be vital. Good luck to whoever triumphs in this contest – you’re going to need it!

*Tom Watson was unable to attend the Fabian hustings due to illness.

All the candidates’s websites can be found here:

Ben Bradshaw

Stella Creasy

Angela Eagle

Caroline Flint

Tom Watson