MY JOURNALISM

Recently, much of the discussion in the Labour leadership contest has focused on the need to abandon factionalism — the current front-runner, Keir Starmer, is the latest to make that point. But despite the warm words from all the candidates, it is not certain whether this is possible or desirable, and, if it is, who will make it happen.

There is a sense from many Labour members and supporters that they are not electing the next Prime Minister, but someone to reprise the role of Neil Kinnock. The next Labour leader won’t necessarily be the one to get the party over the line and into Number 10, but the person who will do the hard work of making the party functional again. The next election will not be “one more heave” — the party isn’t in a shape to do that at present. Unfortunately, for members and MPs alike, at almost every level Labour isn’t working.

At the end of last year, the voters returned a pretty damning judgement on Jeremy Corbyn and the wider Labour Party. But often, what was heard on doorsteps was that voters felt judged by Labour: on social issues, on Brexit, on the kind of lives they were living and providing for their families.

Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy has described Labour’s approach at the recent general election as ‘too paternalistic’ and she’s not wrong. But it wasn’t just the endless, unbelievable giveaways promised that left the electorate feeling disempowered. It was the sense of fatherly disapproval that voters felt from Labour. It’s a particular type of paternalism—the kind that always makes you think of the phrase “You’re not going out dressed like that!”

Well it’s a new year. Time for a new start for the Labour Party? Sort of. Next week the ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) will set out the rules for the leadership contest that is set to take place over the next three months.

At the moment it’s all about the horse race. Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s running? Those either declared or discussed include Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Clive Lewis, Ian Lavery and Jess Phillips. These represent the whole of the party from the moderate to Corbynite wings and everything in between.

Elections make people more partisan than they are normally. They’re a time of heightened politics where the country is talking about and thinking about taking sides. We are forced to make a choice and then defend it — if only to ourselves.

For the vast majority of people this time around that seems like a hard decision. None of the main parties are particularly appealing to ordinary voters. All seem to be running a core vote strategy that appeals to their hyper-dedicated activists but is leaving everyone else uninspired.

It was something of a contest as to who had the worse time last week, the Labour Party or the BBC. The correct answer is probably the Lib Dems.

Jeremy Corbyn had a “car crash” interview with Andrew Neil, and shortly after that it was revealed that Boris Johnson didn’t want to face the same forensic grilling. He turned up on the Andrew Marr show instead, where the interviewer did his best, but it was nothing like the Neil interview.