This week Jeremy Corbyn won a big election. Except this time it came as no major surprise. Even I called this one right. It was a profound moment for the Labour Party as it cements the power of Corbyn across the party — lock, stock and barrel. The absolute boy is the absolute boss. He won the leadership (twice), he has faced down or forced out his critics among the MPs, he won seats at the general election and he now has a majority on the National Executive Committee (NEC) which is the all-powerful governing body. You can’t fart in the Labour Party without an NEC- approved rule instructing you how to do it properly.
The three candidates backed by Momentum, including its founder Jon Lansman, thrashed the centrist slate of candidates which included Eddie Izzard, who deserves an award for being on the losing side. I say this as a fellow serial loser. I advised Angela Eagle for the 20 minutes she considered standing against Corbyn until she got a brick thrown through her constituency office window.
This NEC election tells us that Corbyn is still ragingly popular, the mass membership still love his politics and the moderates are nowhere. So of course Momentum and Corbyn were going to win. And to the victor, the spoils. That means controlling the party machine, policy, selections and all the rule-making.
The dilemma Corbyn faces is that he knows he’s closer to power with Theresa May as Tory leader than Labour has been in a long time and he wants it. He has spoken a language which taps into people’s frustrations and offers something more positive and hopeful. But that meta message of niceness to the public will be fundamentally undermined if they see the party turn on and deselect MPs and councillors they voted for who are decent, hard-working and whose only crime is not to have the same values as their leader or not voting for him in the 2015 leadership contest — making that a purity test would be wrong and self-defeating.
The irony is that Corbyn’s opponents both inside and outside the party want him to do exactly that. Deselections of sitting elected MPs and councillors will only confirm all the worst things critics think about Corbyn’s Labour Party — that it is hardline, aggressive and vindictive. And it would play terribly with the public. As Theresa May once said at her own party conference, people don’t like nasty parties. A purge is no path to power.
I genuinely don’t think Corbyn himself wants deselections for many reasons. But can he hold back Momentum? I’m not so sure. It’s already happening. Ann Black, who did an excellent job chairing Labour’s internal disciplinary panel, was yesterday ousted by the new NEC and replaced by a Momentum director, Christine Shawcroft.
This is a needlessly divisive move. Black has not been part of any faction. When I worked at the party during the 2015 leadership bid, she was fair and stood up for members, which helped Corbyn. It doesn’t feel right to have a senior member of any faction head an internal complaints system, especially when there are cases involving anti-semitism and sexual harassment.
It seems such an ill-judged fight to pick, especially when Lansman has said he wants to crack down on abuse. Maybe it’s designed to scare moderate MPs into further cowed silence? If so, it’s working. As one Labour MP told me, their biggest political task was surviving their own side.
I loved Dolores and her punky spirit
I was so upset to hear of the death of Dolores O’Riordan, the lead singer of Irish band The Cranberries, who died suddenly in a London hotel this week, aged 46.
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The Cranberries came from Limerick, got picked up by MTV, became stars and sold millions of records with hits such as Zombie and Linger, which she wrote about her first kiss. O’Riordan was the star with a voice and presence which both haunted and enchanted.
Vulnerable yet fierce, with short spiky hair and Doc Martens, the simplicity of her raw talent always shone bright — she was a far cry from many of the Auto-tuned, over-produced performances we see today.
She lived with many demons, from abuse as a child to depression as an adult but I will always remember her voice and lyrics as providing the soundtrack to my university days.
I have fond memories of belting out her songs in a terrible Irish accent.
RIP, Dolores O’Riordan.
* You may not think Matt Hancock’s recent appointment as Culture Secretary would have an impact on Brexit— but think again.
We Brits are brilliant at creating art, music, film, fashion, television, literature and thinking of things the rest of the world wants. Publishing is worth £3.1 billion, music 2.5 billion and TV £1.3 billion. What makes all this possible is intellectual property rights for creators, so they must be at the heart of trade talks, particularly with India, China and Brazil.
Hancock addresses the Alliance for Intellectual Property this evening in Parliament, where he will meet authors such as Misha Glenny, who wrote McMafia. Thanks to intellectual property rights and licensing deals, more than 200 countries get to enjoy James Norton’s jawline — that’s a proper world service.