The Narrow Church of Labour: where is Starmer going?
Labour, it is often argued, is a political broad church ,comprising socialists and social democrats, left and right. Historically however the right has set the rules of admission to the church which is why the period of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was celebrated by some and regarded as problematic by some-primarily those who see Labour as tweaking rather than challenging the status quo.
In that context Starmer’s latest diktat, another attempt to bar Jeremy Corbyn as standing as a Labour candidate at the next Election, suggests Starmer wants not a broad but a doctrinally pure narrow church.
There are some analytical problems with this. It is not for example the project Tony Blair sometimes speaks on. In his repeated view the foundation of the Labour Party in 1900/1906 was a mistake because it split progressive thought electorally. A renewed Lib-Labism would find little space for the left or robust trade unionism. It would however still have a broad base, albeit different to that of the Labour Party and more like the US Democratic Party.
Starmer’s project appears different. Firstly its difficult to avoid the point that he really wants to be Director of Public Prosecutions and not Labour leader or PM. In a High Performance podcast(27th March) he compared his role to that of the England football manager but made clear his unease at and dislike of Westminster politics.
Starmer said he hated the adversarial nature of British politics. “The moment you stand up at the dispatch box almost every friendly face is now behind you and you’ve got a wall of faces that are going to vehemently disagree with what you’re saying,” he said. “It’s a very, very tribal, divided way of doing things. There are other chambers or other parliaments around the world that are horseshoe-shaped to avoid that.
“I have to say coming in from outside of politics I don’t find it at all comfortable. I don’t think it achieves very much. The best part of the week for me is when prime minister’s questions are over and I can get out of parliament.”
He is also often to be found talking of ‘My’ Labour Party as if it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Starmer plc, rather than a democratic membership organisation.
I don’t think Starmer does ideas or doctrines (mission statements are another matter) hence he is no Blair (with all the issues that has). In fact he seems to want run the Labour Party as a mix between the DPP and a football manager. The latter often get sacked.
Leave a Reply