Away from the excitement of the Labour party leadership race, from “stormin' Corbyn,” offensive questions about weight and more uses of the phrase “Westminster bubble” than a Ukip branch meeting, there is the deputy leadership race.
This contest—which runs along the same timetable—will decide who gets to play the role of party manager. The Deputy Leader's precise job is largely defined by what the Leader wants it to be, but it is likely to involve some responsibility for party organisation and campaigning. That makes it important, and not only for Labour's disgruntled and election-scarred activist base. As many, including John Harris in this month's Prospect, have argued, Labour's electoral problems have a lot to do with its creaking machinery and lacklustre grassroots. The Deputy Leader could do a lot to help turn that around, and turn the party back into a potential governing force.
Last night, the Fabian Society held a hustings, where the Deputy Leadership candidates Stella Creasy, Caroline Flint, Angela Eagle and Ben Bradshaw battled it out (Tom Watson, the fifth contender and front-runner, was ill). Given the nature of the role, the debate was full of practical thoughts on how the party can win again. Here's four things we learned about what the candidates reckon the party needs to do:
Taking on the Tories comes top. Despite the fashion among many party members—particularly those backing Jeremy Corbyn—to focus on the need to regain leftish voters lost to the Greens and SNP or “traditional” supporters lost to Ukip, last night the debate was largely about winning back the kind of centrist swingers who once delivered elections for Tony Blair. As Flint put it, “let's not lose sight of where the real battle lies.” Bradshaw talked about changing the way the party speaks to potential voters, and about his support for an English Labour party: “we have given people the impression that we're not comfortable with English identity and English patriotism,” he said. None of the candidates were among the left-wing rebels who defied the Labour whip to vote against Tory welfare reforms last night.
It's time to open up. All the candidates recognise the importance of making it easier to become active within the party—as Creasy put it, “we put an awful lot of barriers up to people getting involved.” Creasy in particular is running on a ticket to change this—she wants to see the party engage with people who don't think of themselves as “political” but who are exercised by or active on particular community issues.
Scotland remains a mystery. What has happened north of the border, the site of Labour's most dramatic general election defeat, took up surprisingly little of the discussion—as chair Andrew Harrop pointed out, all of the candidates are English. But Creasy did launch an impassioned defence of party unity across Britain: “When I hear Alex Salmond talking about English MPs as if English MPs cannot have a concern for kids in Glasgow, or kids in Edinburgh, or kids in Aberdeen, what he's telling me is he doesn't have a concern for the kids in Walthamstow or the kids in Bristol,” she said.
The candidates are hedging their bets. While Bradshaw has suggested he doesn't want Corbyn to win, the Deputy leadership debate is focused far more on practical party management than ideology, leaving more or less any candidate free to work with any future leader. Flint and Kendall has been shown by polling to be the combination which Tories most fear (though it's looking ever less likely to happen), and Tom Watson, the only candidate to nominate a leadership candidate, backs Kendall. Creasy, as a popular member of the 2010 intake, would look good next to Burnham or Cooper to help them shake off their Blair/Brown baggage.
This contest—which runs along the same timetable—will decide who gets to play the role of party manager. The Deputy Leader's precise job is largely defined by what the Leader wants it to be, but it is likely to involve some responsibility for party organisation and campaigning. That makes it important, and not only for Labour's disgruntled and election-scarred activist base. As many, including John Harris in this month's Prospect, have argued, Labour's electoral problems have a lot to do with its creaking machinery and lacklustre grassroots. The Deputy Leader could do a lot to help turn that around, and turn the party back into a potential governing force.
Last night, the Fabian Society held a hustings, where the Deputy Leadership candidates Stella Creasy, Caroline Flint, Angela Eagle and Ben Bradshaw battled it out (Tom Watson, the fifth contender and front-runner, was ill). Given the nature of the role, the debate was full of practical thoughts on how the party can win again. Here's four things we learned about what the candidates reckon the party needs to do:
Taking on the Tories comes top. Despite the fashion among many party members—particularly those backing Jeremy Corbyn—to focus on the need to regain leftish voters lost to the Greens and SNP or “traditional” supporters lost to Ukip, last night the debate was largely about winning back the kind of centrist swingers who once delivered elections for Tony Blair. As Flint put it, “let's not lose sight of where the real battle lies.” Bradshaw talked about changing the way the party speaks to potential voters, and about his support for an English Labour party: “we have given people the impression that we're not comfortable with English identity and English patriotism,” he said. None of the candidates were among the left-wing rebels who defied the Labour whip to vote against Tory welfare reforms last night.
It's time to open up. All the candidates recognise the importance of making it easier to become active within the party—as Creasy put it, “we put an awful lot of barriers up to people getting involved.” Creasy in particular is running on a ticket to change this—she wants to see the party engage with people who don't think of themselves as “political” but who are exercised by or active on particular community issues.
Scotland remains a mystery. What has happened north of the border, the site of Labour's most dramatic general election defeat, took up surprisingly little of the discussion—as chair Andrew Harrop pointed out, all of the candidates are English. But Creasy did launch an impassioned defence of party unity across Britain: “When I hear Alex Salmond talking about English MPs as if English MPs cannot have a concern for kids in Glasgow, or kids in Edinburgh, or kids in Aberdeen, what he's telling me is he doesn't have a concern for the kids in Walthamstow or the kids in Bristol,” she said.
The candidates are hedging their bets. While Bradshaw has suggested he doesn't want Corbyn to win, the Deputy leadership debate is focused far more on practical party management than ideology, leaving more or less any candidate free to work with any future leader. Flint and Kendall has been shown by polling to be the combination which Tories most fear (though it's looking ever less likely to happen), and Tom Watson, the only candidate to nominate a leadership candidate, backs Kendall. Creasy, as a popular member of the 2010 intake, would look good next to Burnham or Cooper to help them shake off their Blair/Brown baggage.
