As a lifelong Labour supporter and, more often than not, a member I have literally no idea how this new Independent Group in parliament will play out. So far eight Labour MPs and three Tories have resigned from their respective parties on matters of principle. Just imagine it: MPs doing something on matters of principle. Unexpectedly, it warmed the cockles of my heart.
We all hear the noises off, especially from the shrill Labour hard left, inside parliament and outside, denouncing ‘splitters’ and ‘traitors’ and accusing them of aiding and abetting this awful government. I can barely be bothered with it anymore. From the moment, Labour members elected Jeremy Corbyn as leader, a splintering of the party was inevitable, just a matter of time. The only surprise to me is that it took so long.
It really was principles that made eleven politicians resign from their parties, to enter into an informal ‘independent’ grouping. For Labour MPs, it was Corbyn’s general ineptitude, his pathetic failure to address anti-Semitism in his party and of course his hard Brexit views that he neatly concealed during the disastrous referendum campaign of 2016. For the Tories, it was the crazed Brexit to which their hopeless leader steers the country, not to mention the transformation of the Tory Party into something quite menacing.
If Labour has lurched decisively to the hard left, then the Tories have moved in the opposite direction, metamorphosing into Ukip. If you were an MP who did not fit into either category, then what were you supposed to do? If you are mainstream left, you know what Corbyn is all about. If you are mainstream right, you will have noted you are in very different company. For many people, both inside and outside parliament, there was simply nowhere to go. Until now.
I have literally no idea where the Independent Group goes and possibly ends. For one thing, they are not a political party as such, not yet anyway. There is a high possibility that they will crash and burn, as the big two parties direct all their ammunition against them. But what if it doesn’t work? What if all the efforts of the Conservative and Unionist Party and the Labour Party fail to maintain the status quo?
The comrades have no need to denounce the Labour MPs who have quit Labour. After all, they still have Corbyn, his ‘top team’ and the best part of half a million members. As they keep telling us, Labour is the biggest political party in Europe. The Corbynistas control the levers of power in Labour. There is no chance they are going to let go. Surely they have enough confidence in the likes of Corbyn, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Richard Burgon to see off those MPs they wanted to deselect anyway? With people like these in positions of potential power, what could possibly go wrong?
For people who are politically homeless, all that’s happened is they – we: I include me in this – may now have a choice after all. If we cannot under any circumstances vote Tory, we have no faith in the Lib Dems after five years propping up David Cameron and we are not attracted by Labour’s return to the values of Derek Hatton we might otherwise be faced with a ballot paper full of people we won’t vote for. I honestly believe that the departure of eight MPs, or even 100 MPs, makes no difference to Corbyn’s Labour. Most of those people who were politically homeless would never have voted for them anyway.
And anyway, the ascendant hard left never wanted people from the mainstream left in Labour. They have for many years derided ‘Blairites’, ‘Brownites’ and just about everyone else who doesn’t see the world through their narrow view as being out of kilter with Labour. “Fuck off and join the Tories,” they said. Should they be surprised when people follow their advice, at least in fucking off?
This isn’t a rehash of the founding of the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s when a number of Labour members quit the party when it was under attack by the Bennite hard left. It feels more of an evolutionary process to me, as it will be in the months and years ahead.
Until this week, all I wanted in politics was ‘my’ Labour Party back, the party of Clement Attlee, John Smith, Gordon Brown, Neil Kinnock and, yes, Tony Blair. Reality has overtaken my dreams and now it is time to look forward, possibly to a brighter political future, possibly nothing at all.
The insults and brickbats will continue to be thrown by the politically ‘pure’, the posturing affluent middle classes who say they know what’s best for the workers. I say to them, the party, the Labour Party, is nearly over, at least in its current state. You can have your anti-west campaigns, fight for a hard Brexit, invite your terrorist friends around for tea and you can stand aside from the rest of the world, wrapped up in your pacifism. You can have all this and no one will stop you, except perhaps the electorate. It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?
If Theresa May is a national embarrassment as prime minister, then Corbyn is a national embarrassment as leader of the opposition. Today, there exists just the possibility that I might actually vote at the next election.
British politics is broken. Whether this embryonic Independent Group can fix it is unknown. If nothing else, we now have hope for the future, hope that there exists a world of politics far better than the two party shambles we now endure.
