Keir Starmer is having a good week, both outside the Labour Party and within it

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When it comes to long-awaited reports, Sue Gray has nothing on Martin Forde QC. A new deadline was set this week for the release of the Forde Report: the chair of the inquiry into a highly controversial leaked Labour report now hopes to deliver it in February. After 18 months, what’s another to wait? No reason was given for the repeated delays, only denial that it was political interference. An earlier explanation given by Forde was that the Information Commissioner’s Office was investigating the same leaks and the Forde Report could prejudice that if released. The ICO’s work is not complete – and yet it is suggested the full report could be given to the NEC next month. The Forde Inquiry now tells LabourList the ICO was “only one factor in the delay in publication”, but this contradicts Forde’s February 2021 letter. No wonder there is “ill-informed speculation”, as Forde describes it.

Putting that ever-increasing cost to the party aside, everything’s coming up roses for the Labour leadership this week. Outside the party, Boris Johnson is clinging onto power, dragging down Conservative colleagues including potential successors in the process. The Gray report has not yet emerged as it is being held up by legal checks, but this looks likely to ensure that it is published in full (and if it is too redacted, Dominic Cummings may have a few things to say, or to leak). Within Labour, Keir Starmer and his supporters have won key votes on the national ruling body (on Jeremy Corbyn’s whip, the proscription of certain groups and new guidance for selections), and secured two candidates they are happy with in Birmingham Erdington and South Yorkshire. As of last night, Paulette Hamilton will stand to replace Jack Dromey in the upcoming parliamentary by-election, while Oliver Coppard will hope to replace Dan Jarvis as mayor on May 5th.

At the same time – it was a busy night for this LabourList editor – Laura Pidcock quit Labour’s national executive committee (NEC). In a lengthy statement, she cited a “hostile territory for socialists” and the leadership being “devoid of ideas” as reasons for leaving mid-term. As by-elections are no longer held when a vacancy arises (they are expensive) and the single transferable vote (STV) system is now used to elect local party reps, the STV must be re-run to determine who replaces Pidcock. This has not yet been done, but LabourList’s understanding is that this will probably be Ann Henderson, another candidate from the left slate. The problem for the Labour left is not that the factional balance will be affected, but that the resignation of their lead rep could demoralise any ‘stay and fight’ effort.

Some are understanding of Pidcock’s choice to leave, saying it is clearly the right thing for her personally. Others are more critical, saying it is especially unhelpful with fresh NEC elections coming up. News of the resignation arrived on the same day that Momentum announced its new membership tier, ‘movement builders’, for those wanting to support the group without being a Labour member (though they still need to be eligible). With Jeremy Corbyn locked out of the parliamentary party, the Socialist Campaign Group divided and the current leadership in control of party machinery at all levels, there are big questions for the Corbynite left – and few signs so far of a clear solution uniting them.

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