#StayinLabour - I won’t be quitting Labour

I won’t be quitting Labour

Not a great day yesterday – the result from Liverpool was not unexpected, and then throw in a lacklustre defeat for Ipswich in Leeds, I did not wake up in the best of moods this morning.

Turning on my phone did not help, people I respect and trust telling me they are leaving the party – I chat to some Corbyn supporters, vow to give him a chance, even not to attack him on twitter but then the car crash of a morning for the party starts.

McDonnell refuses to apologise for the vile comments he made about a woman MP – the woman may be a Tory and not a nice piece of work and someone who should be attacked for her actions as a minister but not with the words McDonnell used. But he could have just apologised and that would have put water on the fire – but, no he said it was OK as he was being honest- this is just minutes after Jeremy Corbyn said he will not accept any abuse. He stated that he is not nasty to anyone – correct but if his closest ally is being abusive and he does not suspend or censor him then he is as guilty as McDonnell.

We then had the offer of an olive branch, wiping the slate clean – seems to have fell on deaf ears if you see the coverage of the Labour First meeting, but then I understand their anger – Corbyn on the Marr show had the opportunity to say there will be no de-selections – he failed to give that assurance.

He is dragging his feet at the NEC on how a Shadow Cabinet should be elected - a real leader would want the most capable people on his front bench. An election would have achieved that plus would have been a real sign of peace in Labour.

Then we find out is he not only dragging his feet on that issue we find out he also spoke out against more autonomy for Scottish Labour and rumour has it that he wants the next NEC to look at reversing some of the decisions made last Tuesday. Democracy?

We then had McCluskey telling us we were ahead in the polls before the coup a myth that Corbyn supporters now seem to see as fact.

You can add in the open anti Semitism being displayed at the  Momentum alternative conference (attended by Corbyn and other Front Benchers like Clive Lewis) you can see why people worry about the future of the party.

It seems most members from pre 2015 did not want Corbyn so new members have changed the party many of us joined – but that does not mean it was all good. We had lost two elections, the membership was distanced from Westminster – we did need clearer policies- in particular on education. But we just get someone who has spent most of his life in Westminster, London centric and a serial rebel – who has a team round him that seem to make constant PR cock-ups and his polices just seem to be words.

I campaigned hard in 2010 and 2015, we lost because we were not trusted on the economy – not because we were Tory lite!

But we need to get behind Corbyn – Am I being a hypocrite? No, I support the Labour Party, not Corbyn the same as I voted for Labour not Foot, Blair or Brown.

I will stay in Labour, fight hard to return more Councillors to the County Council – I will attack the Tories – in particular over this Brexit shambles – but that does not mean I will forgive Corbyn for his poor performance in the EU campaign. But from the news today it seems May joins Johnson, Corbyn and Cameron in a group of MPs who put their own future in front of what would have been better for the country.

Interesting it seems that those who voted in the election campaign, the majority of those under 24 voted for Owen Smith the same generation who feel most betrayed by the EU vote.

So I stay and work hard for the party, attack the Tories, knock on doors, get involved in policy – Corbyn states today that activists will have more of a say in policy – good news as most of the activists who are out on the streets of Ipswich each Saturday are not Corbyn followers- he may have confused the word activists with members.

I want Corbyn to lead, disappointed that in his speech after he won he  'demanded followership, ‘ not what is needed.

I am proud of what this party has achieved in 120 years, the NHS of Bevan, the involvement of Attlee in the founding of NATO and the minimum wage of the Blair Government

There of course were mistakes – Iraq the most commonly used example but I was also proud to be in the army sent by Blair to help in Kosovo as my friends were proud to help secure peace in Sierra Leone.

I fear Corbyn is an isolationist that is not what this party believes in and I believe many who voted for Corbyn also see us as an international movement.

So I stay, work hard for my constituents, campaign hard for Labour victories and where possible stay loyal to the leadership – but I will at times be critical – but never as critical as Corbyn was of Labour leaders – I like him will say if  I disagree on policy – NATO, Trident, EU but I am sure it will not be the 500 times he felt he needed to vote with the Tories.I will not take lectures on loyalty from Corbyn or people like Shami Chakrabarti who have been in the party for all of five minutes.

I would ask all Labour members to stay, the party, the county, the electorate are far more important that one leader. 

#StayinLabour

The role of the Labour Party

Not to be a party of protest but to be a party that can govern this country.

From our rulebook:

Clause 1 of our constitution;

(Labour Party) Its purpose is to organise and maintain in Parliament and in the country a political Labour Party.

3 Labour is committed to the defence and security of the British people and to co-operating in European institutions, the United Nations, the Commonwealth and other international bodies to secure peace, freedom, democracy, economic security and environmental protection for all. (to me that includes being a leading nation in NATO - not something that Corbyn has agreed to in the past or the likes of Livingstone agree with now)

5 On the basis of these principles, Labour seeks the trust of the people to govern.

If we become a party of protest only, we will never gain the trust of the people and we will then fail our own rules - in that we will not be able to maintain in parliament a political Labour Party

15,000 new members in one day – and some still say it is the end of the Labour Party

I did not vote for our new leader, Jeremy Corbyn and I still have some serious concerns about both his past actions, his views on NATO, Europe and Northern Ireland and some of his close ‘entourage’ and many of those who may join (or in most cases re-join) the party because he is now our leader.

But I will not be leaving the party, or throwing my toys out of the pram – I will give him my full backing and the actions and words of David Cameron and the Tories after the result makes me even more determined to work hard to gain a Labour Government.

The words of David Cameron were certainly not the ones you would expect from the Prime Minister, to declare that the Labour Party were now a threat to national security and our families security was an act of pure arrogance.

Of course in Central London, it could be said that Cameron and the Tories are a threat to peoples security as David Cameron has increased the number of members of the House of Lords so there are now more Lords in London than on duty firemen!

As I stated I have not been a Corbyn fan in the past but happier to accept his behaviour in the 80s – being arrested in a demo against the South African apartheid regime that that of Cameron and Boris Johnson smashing up Oxford restaurants!

The comments from Cameron were made worse as MP’s like our own Ben Gummer dutifully repeated the Tory HQ tweet on their own twitter line – does Gummer now believe we are a threat to national security or does he just do what he is told by the Tory hierarchy?

Where I was wrong as many MPs also were, is that we had lost what our members and supporters wanted or possibly (and I hope more likely) we had not got our message over to them, to explain why we have to be seen a competent enough to run the economy and that does not mean becoming ‘Tory lite’.

Jeremy won a with a fantastic majority among members, supporters and union affiliates but he has little (or did) support from MPs and I guess the same may be true of MEPs, Cllrs, Council Leaders and more importantly the activists who are out every week on the doorstep canvassing and delivering. Jeremy must not forget us – we understand our members want change and we must now work together to make it happen.

The 15,000 who joined yesterday is a fantastic boost to the party and we welcome them into this great democratic organisation but for those re-joining, a warning, we can’t and won’t go back to the Labour Party of the 80’s – endless CLP and ward meetings, motions proposed to support some little known left wing organisation in South America, we are not going to run a council like Liverpool Militant did in the past, just look at the mess the Green Party have made in Brighton and we are also not going to be ashamed of what Labour achieved in 3 terms in power – if you’re not happy with that then maybe we are not for you but if you wish to join an organisation based on community campaigning, a party that wants to get things done not just talk about it then we are the party for you.

But most of those 15,000 members from yesterday will be new, not many will even remember Thatcher and the 80s – they do not care what Corbyn did or said then – they just want something new, not just a rehash of old policies – that is why this may just work – it is up to us already in the party to take that enthusiasm of those new members (many of them young) and take the fight to the Tories. In Ipswich this week we are holding two social events with new members – finding out why they joined, what they want to happen and what they can offer to the party and to the people of Ipswich.

Jeremy Corbyn showed the way this morning, he was not sat on twitter, he was at a local mental health event in his own constituency – a great example to many, that is how we will beat the Tories – campaigning hard rather than calling fellow party members, new labour, old labour, red Tories, Tory lite, Blairites, Corbynistas - we are all just LABOUR members and supporters.

But of course it will be a difficult time for the party, many are concerned about the direction we may now move, the strength of the Shadow Cabinet but I was impressed by our new leaders acceptance speech, the proof wil be in the pudding when we see who is on his front bench, and Jeremy is not the youngest and he may just be the person to help turn us back into a mass movement to regain power in the future.

I hope he quickly decides to put the whole party behind the pro-Europe campaign, and that he does not allow people like Galloway to sneak back in.

But we will stay loyal to the party and we will keep fighting for what we believe in.

What about the others? The Green Party probably last as many members as we gained this week and they will be just left with those of the far left who will never come back and those we would not want back. The Lib Dems continue to lose members – mainly to the Tories here in Ipswich, as we always thought many were just ‘yellow’ Tories. The SNP seem now set to go for another vote on independence, probably hoping to get it in before a Labour resurgence north of the border.

The Tories? Will laugh but they should be worried maybe not by Jeremy but by the opposition now being one of the largest political (and campaigning) parties in the Western World. They should also remember a certain IDS – he got over 60% of the Tory vote and was gone in two years. They also have their own impending civil war (or 2) over Europe and their 2019 leadership election.

So we fight on, taking the battle to the Tories, 15,000 new members in one day – I would be worried Mr Cameron, very worried.

We were defeated but we must not be defeatist

Still less than a week since the election and I am still angry, sad, slightly confused and deflated- we were defeated both here in Ipswich and nationally but we must not become defeatist.
We will now have that horrible period (which Labour seems very good at) of blaming each other and making the next leadership campaign one of left v right, ‘Blairite v Brown’ or stronger links to the Union or scrapping any sort of connection to unions.

I for one wanted Ed to stay on, to hold Cameron to task whilst we could have a long leadership campaign that not only chooses a new leader but sets out the direction the party needs to go.
But why did we lose? It was not down to either a lack of effort or poor organisation – here in Ipswich we spoke to thousands of residents, we leafleted, phoned and then went to speak to them again. There is talk that nationally that we focused on our ‘core’ support and did not speak to those who have voted Tory in the past – that cannot be said of us in Ipswich, in some wards we have spoken to over 80% of the electorate in the last 4 years – Labour voters, Tories, UKIP, and even the odd Lib Dem (when you could find them) But we lost the election because our national message did not sound like one of aspiration and we also did not allay the fears of those that thought a Labour Government would be one that would see interest rates and inflation rise.

Some local Tories (falsely) accused me of accusing the electorate of being stupid – words I never used – but we did fail to appeal to self-interest – but the point is do we want to appeal to the selfish side of people?

The answer has to be no, but we also do not just want to be the party of opposition, there are many in our party and even more so in the Lib Dems/Greens who prefer to be in opposition, much easier to shout from the sidelines rather than change things.

So we need to get back into power, we need to appeal to those who did not vote for us but not by just appealing to their selfish side but to persuade and reassure them that a Labour Government does not just mean higher taxes, people having an easy life on benefits and money being wasted on stupid projects.

Most people are slightly selfish – Thatcher, the Tories & Murdoch did not invent selfishness, greed and contempt for the poor & weak but they helped make them socially acceptable.
One way we could have done that was to be prouder of what we had achieved in power – here in Ipswich we have a University, a new college, a new 6th form centre, primary schools and a new building at the hospital – we hardly mentioned them whilst here in Ipswich, Tory Ben Gummer kept taking the plaudits for getting Ipswich academy (Holywells re-built) and Chantry school to be re-built soon – neither project as successful or as inspiring as the building of UCS.

Here in Ipswich the defeat is harder to stomach, because we had a great candidate in David Ellesmere, we had a better campaign team and we displayed to the Ipswich public that we could do a great job within difficult financial restraint but in the end people voted on national issues.

Ben Gummer who seemed to get more arrogant as the 5 year term went on may believe it was down to his own personal vote, for what he has done for the town and what he has pledged to do – not sure much of that had anything to do with his win. He did campaign hard, made good use of the media and is charming when you meet him but in the end he has delivered very little in the town.
But it is now important that we run a positive campaign for the next 5 years but also hold him to his 6 pledges, interesting within 48 hours of his win he was backtracking on one pledge as he stated there was little he could do to help with improving the town centre- did not read that in any leaflet before May?

The two Gummer pledges that we do need to monitor carefully, are the building of a ‘northern’ route and education. No longer can they blame everything on the last Labour Government though I did hear a Tory MP seriously state that they now had to clear up the mess left by the Lib Dems! On the ‘northern’ route, Gummer still seems keener on his Wet Dock crossing than pushing for a route to help the building of much needed homes on the Northern Fringe, and can now expect his Tory neighbour, Dr Poulter to do all he can to stop any road being built in his constituency so yet again Ipswich will suffer as the Suffolk Tories yet again ignore the needs of the County town.

On education he has pledged to help/force./push all Ipswich schools to achieve ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ when they are next inspected- I hope he achieves that, it is the least our young residents deserve- but I hold out little hope for this pledge to be achieved unless he holds the Suffolk Tory Council’s feet to an open fire – they have completely washed their hands of education in this county and they just seem hell bent on forcing all schools to become academies so that they no longer are held responsible for them.

So if Gummer wants to be judged on his pledges, we will make sure he is - but answer me this Mr Gummer – will you stand down in 2020 if you fail to deliver those 6 pledges (or 5 as you seem to have given up on one already) by the time of the next election? As Mr Cameron once said – n0 ‘ifs’ no ‘buts’.
The future? The Ipswich Labour party will campaign harder and longer, we will get fully involved in the debate on the new leader. We will continue to run Ipswich well at the same time holding the Tory run County and Ben Gummer to task.

We will recruit and mentor new members, much has been said about the link between the Labour Party and the Unions, here in Ipswich we have a great relationship with our local union branches – they did not just provide financial help but they were out with us on the doorstep every Saturday- talking to the residents, we need to keep working on improving that relationship. We need to and will continue to talk to residents, but not just on the doorstep we need to get out to other community events, talk to schools, churches, WI’s, firms – anyone who wants us to talk to them.
We need to speak to those who voted UKIP, understand why they did, talk about immigration and migration and offer solutions rather than try and just replicate the far right rhetoric of the Tory party.
We have to continue to fight, less than a week of a Tory Government and the union bashing has already started, and then the Tories wish to crush our human rights – we need to organise not mourn.

It will not be easy, the leadership election will be difficult at times, certain parts of the Labour movement will see this as battle of ‘left’ v ‘right’ but we need to come out of this stronger and more united.

At no time since the start of the 20th Century is the Labour Party needed more than now.

I will be fighting hard every day – we can win and must win in 2020.

Against the Odds

Video played at the Labour conference- many believe we should use this as our TV Political Broadcast - it does make you proud to be a member of our great Party