Its significance will be dissected for weeks by the Westminster lobby, because that is what they see – the Westminster face of the party. But the first thing we members need to realise is that the Shadow Cabinet and, indeed, party policy in times of Covid-19, is a sideshow.
Let’s not forget: the party is finally out of immediate danger, but it is still in intensive care.
Yes, it is important in these difficult times to provide a reasonably effective scrutiny function to the highly-variable ministerial quality on the Tory benches. But most moderates, we might wager, inside or perhaps temporarily outside the party, have always seen this leadership election as a two-step battle, in which both steps are essential and not just the first.
Step one: get a decent, competent, non-extremist leader (a low bar, you might reasonably say). Tick. And with Starmer, at first glance, things looks considerably better than anyone might have expected. Then, step two: sort out the party. In short, get it back to a decent, healthy, functioning organisation without the slightest hint of anti-Semitism or far-left extremism – both of which pretty much amount to the same thing.
And it is this second one to which we need now turn. It is not a question of it being a nice-to-have or an “in the fullness of time”: any failure to act on this immediately will mean that the good guys will not return – either our members or our supporters – and the whiff of racism will remain. The party, simply, will not recover. It is a sine qua non.
Here Uncut proposes eight things which will need to happen to make that a reality, and they will all need to start – and some finish – during the first hundred days.
One. Make it abundantly clear there needs to be a new General Secretary. The GS cannot easily be fired, but it is also impractical for them to continue if a party leader really does not want them there. The only key figure who will now want Formby to continue is Len McCluskey; the PLP, NEC, Leader’s Office and other unions will not.
Two. Eradicate anti-Semitism, branch by branch if necessary, as was done with Militant. The EHRC report, when it comes, will help mobilise opinion within the party and ensure that the guilty are brought to task, but action needs to be taken before then. Starmer’s meetings with JLM and BoD have been a good start. But this cannot really happen until we deal with point one. This will also have the happy side-effect of removing some of the nastier extremists from the party.
Three. Ignore Momentum. It is not necessary to try to attack it, it is already in disarray; a fan club based around one man can hardly have much future when that man goes. It is fracturing, as the far left always does. Its anti-Semitic members will be expelled from Labour. The important thing is not to engage with it, let it have its little conference in September and let it be a flop. Ironically, an organisation called Momentum will die if it lacks that which gives it its name. Those decent members, who are not mad or extremist and joined in good faith, will drift back towards the party proper. Eventually even Unite will dump it – they will want to be where the power is.
Four. Consolidate the NEC. As of last weekend, Starmer now has a non-Corbynite majority much more quickly than anyone expected. But it is wafer-thin, and any setback could cause backsliding towards Corbynism, and potentially block resolution of some of the anti-Semitism cases, although Starmer has said he wants an independent process. This summer’s NEC elections matter like never before. As an aside, suspended Peter Willsman needs to be expelled from the party and the NEC forthwith, if the party is truly serious about anti-Semitism.
Five. Break Unite’s stranglehold on party funding and remove its placepeople. Miliband’s pushing away of corporate sponsorship and High Value donors inevitably weakened his negotiating position in resisting McCluskey’s demands. Corbyn killed these things altogether. But McCluskey is now weak: he self-evidently backed the wrong horses in the leadership contest and he may soon stand down anyway. Corbyn let him dominate his private office and party HQ: this must never be allowed to happen again.
Six. Rebuild in Scotland. If the party is ever going to get back to majority government, the current situation in Scotland must be reversed. Significant focus and resources will need to be put into this longer-term task, and for this reason we may need to accept that majority government is not a realistic option for 2024. But the later we start, the later we will finish.
Seven. Extend the hand of friendship to the people who left. We lost a lot of good people – many of them lifelong members and supporters – over the last four years. We need engagement, not recriminations, to get them back.
Eight. Get the party into a sensible place on trans self-id. A warning light for the party: during the leadership election, several candidates tied themselves up in knots over the rights of transsexuals to self-identify, an issue on which they are seriously out of step with the public and many of their own members. It is a ticking time-bomb. If not resolved, it will inevitably flare up into a huge embarrassment for the party and may well cause more members – especially women – to leave, at a time when we should be persuading them to stay.
That’s just for starters, of course – we are starting from a low base and there will be more reform tasks to come next year. But these are the essential ones from day one, and some must be fixed within weeks and not months.
As one former leader once said, “Our top priority was, is and always will be education, education, education”. For Keir Starmer’s top team, it must now be the party, the party, the party. Its very survival depends on it.
This piece first posted at Labour Uncut