Jeremy Corbyn to run for Labour deputy leadership?

Posted on Tuesday 19 December, 2006
Filed Under Labour Left

 


Blogging Brownite MP Tom Watson has just posted this tit-bit:

‘Friends tell me that Jeremy Corbyn – pictured – is on the verge of throwing his hat into the ring for the deputy leadership. I don’t know why he doesn’t go the whole way and stand for the leadership. He has more humour than John McDonnell.’

If the story’s true, that’s excellent news. Can I hereby declare myself the first Labour blogger to endorse the new hard left dream ticket?

Yeah, yeah. I know that the last time the left challenged for both jobs, Benn and Heffer secured just 12%. And this time round, it’s not even sure that McDonnell and Corbyn will make it onto the ballot papers

Even so, the contest – if it does take place – should constitute an important barometer of Labour Party feeling. Every percentage point over the 1988 tally is well worth fighting for.


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Comments

17 Responses to “Jeremy Corbyn to run for Labour deputy leadership?”

  1. stroppybird
    on December 19th, 2006 at 15:38

    Hopefully they will join forces on this.

    Just one gripe…it would be nice if the ‘dream ‘ticket was not two white middle aged straight men. Not asking for tokenism, but it does say something about the left.

  2. Dave
    on December 19th, 2006 at 16:08

    Spot on, Strops. But who else is there? At least these two have name recognition on the Labour left – which itself is heavily white, male and straight.

    But signs of life in the corpse could help recruit at least a small new layer of younger activists.

    Actually, if it brings 300 under-30s into Labour left politics, that alone will make the campaign a qualified success.

  3. stroppybird
    on December 19th, 2006 at 16:13

    But it does show up the weakness on the left as a whole.

    Also both are 1980s London lefties. No bad thing (my background and yours). But where is the new blood in the PLP ?

    I will support them…but .

    There is an e-mail from the Jonh4Leader campaign organising a feminists4John meeting. I’ll go to that. Well its that or make the sandwiches and teas for the boys…and as you know cooking skills are not really my forte:-)

  4. Jon Rogers
    on December 19th, 2006 at 16:33

    Were Jeremy to go for it I would be in full support. The main question has to be the leadership however. That is where the policy debate is to be had.

    Stroppy – you should run for selection in a marginal or Labour held constituency and give us more choice in the future!

  6. Dave
    on December 19th, 2006 at 16:55

    Up to a point Jon … but tactically, there might be more mileage for the left in the deputy stakes. It’s not such a foregone conclusion, is it?

  7. stroppybird
    on December 19th, 2006 at 16:59

    Surely its about the two together which would be a stronger campaign, the left in the PLP working together (ok, perhaps thats a tad optimistic!)

  8. JimJay
    on December 19th, 2006 at 18:37

    Out of interest is there any realistic chance either of these could get onto the ballot paper? And would a softer option (like Meacher) have more or less chance of clearing the first hurdle?

  9. Last of the Blairites
    on December 19th, 2006 at 18:58

    I won’t be supporting either, but Jon is right – the deputy leadership election is not important – think of the last three deputies – Prescott, Beckett, Hattersley: all big figures but what is their lasting impact? Nothing as compared to Blair, Smith, Kinnock (I’ve left out Foot and Callaghan as they obviously were important precisely because they ceased to be deputy leader).

  10. Mark P
    on December 19th, 2006 at 19:07

    JimJay’s first question is important and I haven’t seen much serious discussion of it.

    If you listen to the John4Leader campaign and some of the people around it you often hear the claim that he is going to win the leadership and that a wide range of MPs, including ones outside of the “usual suspects” are going to vote to put him on the ballot paper. Now taking it for granted that the first assertion is daft, it’s the second one which could be interesting. Where are these nominations going to come from?

    There are 24 MPs in the Socialist Campaign Group. Not all of these will support McDonell even in a straight fight with Brown. But for the sake of argument lets give him all 24. Where are the other 20 nominations going to come from?

    If (more probably when) some other contender enters the contest, things look even worse. Maverick MPs outside the hard left who just hate Brown or want a contest are probably much more likely to support another Blairite or someone else from the right, centre or soft-left. There will also be intense pressure on more natural supporters of McDonnell to push for a more “moderate” (ie right wing) candidate.

  11. JimJay
    on December 19th, 2006 at 20:46

    I think Last of the Blairites underestimates all the previous deputy leaders. Even Beckett.

    Sure their *profile* has always been far less than the leader, and less even than other prominent Labour figures but that is not the same thing as not having a profound impact on the political landscape.

    To underestimate what a powerful figure Prescott has been is a mistake I think. Not just in the Labour Party, where he has been uber committee man but he has been one of the most powerful politicians in the country with the ODPM forcing Blairite policies into every council in the country.

    The media may have mocked him for having no role – but when have they been interested in planning, locally delivered public services and council housing?

  12. stroppybird
    on December 19th, 2006 at 20:54

    Jim

    I think also its the behind the scenes role and how the DP position , if it is seen as representing a ‘wing’, can have some influence.

    This has varied with different DPs.

    If a left deputy was elected it would send a message.

  13. Phil
    on December 19th, 2006 at 22:29

    If a left deputy was elected it would send a message.

    Yep. It would send a message that the party can still be reclaimed by the Left, that rebuilding an independent Left is less important than supporting Corbyn’s efforts to nudge Brown’s elbow, and in general that the Left should work within and not against Labour. Bad message! No biscuit!

    I read about a survey of long-term dieters once. Respondents were asked

    a) their target weight

    b) how long they’d been dieting

    c) their target weight when they first started dieting

    d) their actual weight when they first started dieting

    a) and d) had a distressing tendency to be similar, if not identical.

    That’s what the Labour Left reminds me of. The Left in the Labour Party is decades behind where it should be – it would take years of struggle to get back to the level of the defeats of the 1980s. Admittedly, the same is true of the Left outside the party. The difference is that the Right in the Labour Party hasn’t stood still all this time: the party’s been reorganised from the top down to make a left comeback impossible.

    But it’s true that it gets lonely out here in Nonalignia. I think I’ll move to Wales. Either that or join the Green Party (libertarian-marxist-wallist tendency).

  14. stroppybird
    on December 19th, 2006 at 22:45

    Phil

    So what are the great successes of the left outside the labour Party ?

    I see the McDonnell campaign as a way to see if a platform for left activity can be built in the party. It may be to late but its worth one more shot.

    As I said show me an alternative. Being some purist in a far left sect that can look down their nose at LP members whislt really achieving sod all and point scoring with other left grouplets ? Loys of little groups ‘building the party ‘, often just recruiting from each other much of the time.

    Trouble is the left is in poor health , whether in or out of the LP.

  15. Phil
    on December 19th, 2006 at 23:46

    I haven’t got a ready-made alternative to offer – if the Socialist Alliance (say) was still out there this argument would be a lot simpler. (Although personally I am thinking seriously about the Greens – apparently you don’t actually have to be a veggie…)

    I admit that, if you’re on the Left and in England, and you want to be part of something, there won’t be any realistic option for a lot of people other than Labour. But that still doesn’t make joining Labour a good idea – any more than it would have been a good idea to join the Liberals before the Labour Party was established.

    It seems to me that the Labour Party in power has done a lot to weaken the Left, practically and ideologically: it’s harder to organise on the Left and harder to get an audience for leftist ideas than it was under Major. And New Labour has carried through this attack on the Left while still retaining the loyalty of the Left’s own constituency (or at worst driving them away from politics altogether).

    Labour loyalty runs very deep – you don’t say you support Labour, you say you are Labour. (I was Labour myself right up until Blair took over.) It’s a loyalty which has been cynically exploited by people whose programme has nothing to do with the timid social democracy of Old Labour, let alone socialism. For the Left to go back to Labour would revive that loyalty in an awful lot of people, to nobody’s benefit but Brown’s.

  17. M W Hall
    on December 20th, 2006 at 17:47

    I think it would be pointless. Corbyn wouldn’t win it, the only person Left of the others who has a chance is Cruddas. The opportunity to have a fight over Iraq will be destructive and counterproductive. The only candidtate with different approach and policies to the rest is Cruddas. He has said he wants to strengthen the Trade Union Link, re-democratise the party bringing members into policy input more, go back to the community base to strengthen the party, and have a rethink on our vision for society, around issues like social housing and inequality.

    This is the only realistic candidtae that can throw a stick in the wheels of the rightward shift and elitism of the Labour government.

    Voting Corbyn will be a waste of time.