Neal Lawson: The era of two party politics is over – Labour should have a done a deal with the Lib Dems in Richmond Park

On Saturday, Labour members in Richmond Park selected Christian Wolmar as their candidate for the by-election on December 1. Christian, a friend of mine, will hopefully be a Labour MP one day – but he won’t be in Richmond Park, not now, not ever. Indeed they could make it more likely that Zac Goldsmith is returned as the MP. So why stand?

That’s the question that at least half the people in the selection meeting on Saturday morning had in their mind, according to someone who was in the room and called me straight after. Its why one person tried to move a motion not to select, a motion the chair wanted to put to the meeting, but was told by the London regional official that they couldn’t. Labour doesn’t always stand candidates in general elections or by-elections – witness the Haltemprice and Howden by-election in 2008 when David Davis resigned and stood again. Labour stepped aside.

That was a political decision, just as it was political in Richmond Park on Saturday morning. But the Labour Party machine, the people who are the servants of the membership, intervened to ruled out a vote. Such an act is simply outrageous. Whether you think Labour should have stood or not, it should have been up to the local party members to decide if they had a candidate. Several were so disgusted they walked out.

Labour is now the only major party in the by-election that seems not to care if its campaign takes enough votes to let in their opponents. UKIP and the Tories have both stood aside to give Goldsmith a free run. The right understands the need for solidarity, unity and pragmatic compromise. The Greens, rather heroically, stood aside too for the Liberal Democrat candidate – the only candidate who stands a chance of defeating Goldsmith, a man who wants the hardest possible Brexit and who ran a racially divisive campaign for London Mayor. His re-election to the Commons will be a boost for the right-wing drift in the country. His defeat could be the start of a fight back for sense and decency. But Labour would rather play its tribal games and lose. Many of the local membership could see not just the futility but the potentially destructive results of this act – but we will never know how many.  If Goldsmith wins by less than the Labour vote, who will come out and defend Labour’s decision to stand?

Two big issues arise. First where is the new internal party democracy we have been promised? What is the point of local parties if they can just be over-ruled by the centre? All these new members will simply give up if they aren’t listened to and heeded. This is the nature of activism in the 21st century – people expect a voice and say and not just be campaign fodder.

The second issue is our relationship with the Liberal Democrats and the idea of a wider progressive alliance. The anger at the Lib Dems is understandable. They didn’t play their hand in the coalition well.  But they did some good things and stopped a lot of bad things. They would have stopped the Brexit vote, as Cameron hoped, if they had been in government again. Given our awful voting system, what else could they do but go into government when a second election and an outright Tory win was everyone’s expectation? But, even if you have no sympathy for them, then is not now. Tim Farron is not Nick Clegg and it’s impossible to see how they could work with the Tories given Brexit.  

Just in terms of ever sniffing power again, Labour needs the Lib Dems to win a swathe of seats in the south west – places where Labour simply shouldn’t stand if we are to ever beat the Tories. Local parties must be given that option. And just think about seats like Brentford and Isleworth in London who have a very good Labour MP in Ruth Cadbury. Labour enjoys the narrowest of margins over the Tories with the Lib Dems a long way behind. A deal could and should be made locally. The seat is next door to Richmond Park. But why should the Liberal Democrats now reciprocate? It is just so unnecessary.

There is now a faultline running through Labour. Its not whether you are left or right, but whether you want a meaningful democracy and pluralism or whether  you think Labour can and must always stand alone. Lisa Nandy, Clive Lewis and Jonathan Reynolds showed the way ahead for a new politics by arguing in a LabourList article for the party to stand aside in Richmond last week. They know, as do more and more people in the party and the unions, that the future, if Labour is to have one, will not look or feel like the past. There will never be a Labour government like 1945 or even 1997 again.  The era of two party politics is over. The future will not be imposed by Labour alone, but will have to be negotiated with others. We can resist this cultural shift all we want – but we will be on the wrong side of history as we were on Richmond Park on Saturday morning.

Neal Lawson is chair of Compass. Compass is holding public meeting on the progressive alliance and how to stop Zac Goldsmith tomorrow at 7pm at the Unitarian Church, Ormond Road, Richmond TW10 6TH. Details here.