Labour’s newest MP tells PLP to take councils seriously

Jim McMahon, Labour’s newest MP, has criticised the attitude of some in the party for underestimating the importance of councillors and council leaders.

The Oldham West and Royton MP has argued council elections should not be considered as a measuring stick for national election prospects but instead should be seen as an end in themselves.

“It’s a frustration for me because I kind of resent the idea that councillors are somehow just a barometer of the national party. What I say to the national party is don’t use local elections like that, as if they don’t really matter. They absolutely do – they’re more important than a temperature check.

“I do think we nationally underestimate the importance of councillors.

“The media, the public and politicians themselves believe that being an MP is more important than being a council leader, even despite the disparity of power and influence and ability to make things happen.”

He also told Politics Home that Labour should put greater effort into developing its policy on devolution.

“We’ll say ‘the Tories should come forward with a framework for devolution in England’. Why wait for the Tories to do it? Why don’t we do it?

“We can devise our own. We don’t feel like it’s our project, which is why we’re always waiting for the Tories to do something that we then respond to. And it’s always a cautious welcome. ‘We cautiously welcome it, but the b******* are taking our money away.’ That’s the generic press release whenever a devolution announcement is made.”

He also distanced himself from Jon Trickett’s view on LabourList that the party’s starting point for the local elections should be to improve on the share of the vote achieved in last year’s general election. He said Labour “should be doing better in a lot of places” than the Government. 

“From an objective point of view, given how desperate the Government are at this point in time – with a number of things conspiring to come together at once – and given the campaign for the referendum will overlap with the local election so awareness of politics will be heightened, my expectation, my hope, is that we would be in a far better position. We should be doing better in a lot of places than the Government.”

Trickett’s piece gained criticism from Michael Dugher, Liz Kendall, Ian Austin and Mike Gapes, each of whom suggested he was not ambitious enough.