Jim McMahon: Labour’s respectable radical?

Labour owes Jim McMahon a big debt of gratitude. After weeks of dreadful coverage the success in Oldham provided a rare moment of positive headlines. Needless to say success in politics has many fathers but what are the real lessons for Labour from the victory in Oldham?

Firstly, candidates do matter. Jim had spent a decade transforming the reputation and profile of Oldham. That change was even more remarkable given the legacy of Oldham Labour – a byword for nepotism and incompetence. In 2003, the year he became a councillor, Oldham Council was rated the second worst council in Britain and termed ungovernable by the Audit Commission.

On becoming leader in 2011 he invested a huge amount of political and personal energy in restoring civic pride in a town that had lost its confidence. He realised at an early stage that there was little future in relying on the public sector to secure  employment and that the future lay in building up the private sector and encouraging self employment. In that he gained powerful endorsement when Norman Stoll, a self made millionaire with a fondness for the town, gave him a cheque for £1 million to encourage enterprise in Oldham. This, combined with a ‘Get Oldham working’ campaign, saw the creation of 2,500 jobs in three years.

The realistic attitude saw its dividends during the by-election when a whole range of small businesses and local organisations endorsed his campaign. There can’t be many parliamentary candidates that have got a half time shout out at the local football club as well as endorsements from the newly opened restaurants in the town centre.. His economic record could teach George Osborne a lesson in building up a sustainable local economy with support of the private sector.

It would be good to think that Labour has learnt the lesson for all candidates, but the evidence is patchy. Nearby seats with strong local Labour representation since 1945 now have middle class MPs from further afield, sometimes selected with the help of trade unions.

The other message from Oldham is that Jim provided reassurance to that section of the electorate memorably termed ‘Labour Labour’ by Paul Mason of Channel 4 News – ie. those working class families and communities that have voted Labour for generations but who the party have increasingly patronised and denigrated. Oldham West and Royton is on every available measure the most working class constituency in England. They took to Jim as one of their own. Here was the man who left school at 16 and took on three jobs to look after his young family. He didn’t need a Resolution Foundation lecture on the importance on tax credits; his family relied on them. He wanted the best for his own family and the town. That appealed to the White and Asian working class communities across Oldham West and Royton and it’s why he won every ward in the constituency, to the consternation of UKIP. ‘English Labour’ needs to win back the aspirational working class if it is ever to win back power – Oldham showed the way.

The history of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is littered with strong local leaders who fail to shine. The combination of a harsh media and a dislike of ‘tall poppies’ means that many disappear without trace.  Let’s hope it will be different this time.

Students of Labour history will know that Oldham has provided many role models including Annie Kenny the only working class suffragette. It also provided two inspiring Labour MPs. Victor Grayson MP for Colne Valley in the early twentieth century who challenged the political establishment and fought for  the oppressed. The other was J R Clynes who rose from humble origins as a mill worker to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (beaten by Ramsey MacDonald for the leadership in 1922, having spent a year and a half in that role).  

Jeremy Corbyn may have been a strange answer to the question but the questions remain relevant. Wages for the average household have been in decline for the last twenty years, most people under 40 can’t afford to rent or buy a family home and the rich1% are more powerful and influential than ever.

We need a Labour Party that addresses these issues. Apart from anything else we are danger of creating a political elite based on public school education and connections that is self perpetuating. Labour needs a genuine working class MP that can appeal to the generators of wealth as well as the aspirational families that formed the basis of our electoral success in 1966 and 1997. As a county we have had 19 Prime Ministers from Eton it might be about time we tried one from Miles Platting.

Paul Wheeler writes on local politics.