LabourList’s view: Time to come together

Today Labour is at a fork in the road. Just 12 months after members, politicians, trade unions and supporters gathered to witness the crowning of a new leader, we are back here again.

This has been a sobering year for anyone in the Labour family. The reasons for this are complicated and painful but here is not the place to rehearse what has gone right and wrong.

It is, instead, necessary to calmly assess the state of the party and the country. Each has been transformed, respectively, by the emergence of Momentum and by the result of the EU referendum.

Britain is in the grip of ten years of Tory rule. Theresa May has risen to the highest office in the land on the back of decades of near-constant caution. She is likely to stay there, unelected, until at least 2020.

Labour remains far from power. There are positives amid the internal politicking – the acclamation of a new leader presents the opportunity for a fresh start. The party has a record number of members; is in rude financial health, as Iain McNicol, the general secretary, made clear yesterday; has won crucial victories in parliament over disgraceful Tory plans to cut tax credits and disability payments; is back in power in London and Wales; and is bursting with ideas.

There are, however, plenty of problems to worry members across the country. Labour is struggling to provide an effective Opposition in parliament to one of the most regressive Tory governments; there is a mountain to climb in Scotland; around Britain there is a divide between party activists, who in large numbers support the leader, and MPs, who don’t; and, all too often, that division has been expressed a manner that is cruel, rather than comradely.

This post is not about the role of the person at the top of the party. LabourList has remained neutral on the leadership contest and has not attempted to dictate to its readers on how to vote this summer.

What we want to say, and hammer home, is that Labour must move on after today.

Few in the party have the stomach for another year of the like we have just seen. The in-fighting has sapped morale and distracted attention from the failures of the Tories on grammar schools, Brexit and several international crises, such as the heart-breaking conflict in Syria.

So Labour must improve its performance significantly. Whoever claims the leadership today must do a better job of holding to account the government. MPs who are critical of Jeremy Corbyn are entitled to make an argument about the direction of Labour, but must deliver criticism in a measured way, and should direct their passion for social justice towards fighting the Tories relentlessly.

Similarly it is perfectly reasonable for activists to debate and disagree with their MPs and candidates – in fact, it can be a good thing – but there is no place for abuse or threats of mandatory re-selection. The majority of members already respect this stance. A few are still learning.

Discussions of the record of the last Labour government will never go away but need to bear in mind the many successes, from peace in Northern Ireland to the minimum wage and Sure Start, as well as its failures. Blair and Brown have moved on. So should we.

We need to talk and listen to each other more. A two-candidate election is inevitably polarising, with each side demonising their rivals. But many of the challenges Labour faces are far more long-term than Corbyn’s leadership, including our decline in Scotland and the deep divisions between our core supporters exposed by the EU referendum. That is why LabourList is now more important than ever. From the top to the grassroots of the party, nobody should talk only to their side of the party, but should reach across, persuade and understand their counterparts. This site exists for people to do just that.

There is no easy answer to Labour’s woes but it is clear that members and MPs – whether from the frontbench or the backbenches – must come together from today. By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.

Peter Edwards, editor.

Tom Happold, executive editor.

Conor Pope, senior staff writer.