What Has Happened to the Labour Party in the U.K.?

We welcome Andrew Edwards, a Welshman and now a successful business man from a village north of Cambridge, England, to these pages for the first time.  'Drew' offers some cogent thoughts on the state of Britain's major opposition party to the Conservatives who are now in power.  What follows is an excellent review of recent governments and the state of the Labour Party today. If you wish a refresher or a first time exposure to U.K. political parties, take a few minutes to read this essay. - Glenn N. Holliman

What has happened to the Labour Party?

Let me be very clear before you start reading this.  My political leanings are naturally centre left.  I grew up in an environment where politics if not discussed were never far away.  Both my parents lineage can be traced back the heavy industries of South Wales – Steel, Coal Mining and Railways. 

Right, Andrew Edwards of England with this review on recent English political history.

It was out of this cauldron the Labour Party was borne – a political party to represent the working man.  In early part 20th Century there were only 2 mainstream political parties in the UK – Conservatives  and Liberals.  The Liberals claimed to be the party of the working man but it was felt that they were loosing touch with their supporters and as a result Labour – a largely untried political party started to gain strength and formed a minority government in 1924.  Since then there has only been two political parties with any hope of forming a majority Government with them swapping roles on a fairly regular basis.

 Right, Ramsay McDonald, Labour's first prime minister in 1924

The only exception to this was in May 2010 when the then leader of the Conservative Party was forced into a ‘coalition’ with the Liberal Democrats due to their inability to form a government with working majority.  I could now write on the reasons that this was a mistake for the Liberal Democrats but the results of the election in 2015 amply demonstrated this.  It will take a generation for them to get back to where they were prior to 2010.

Even before the 2010 election disquiet was growing within the voting population.  The involvement in the second Gulf War crystallised the belief that politicians were more than happy to lie to us.  The feeling amongst the public was that this was war to settle the scores and protect the interests of the oil companies.  The false claim that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction  – which was based on the ‘dodgy dossier’ seemed only to be an excuse to go to war.  

Right, Tony Blair, Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007 who led the U.K. into the controversial Iraq War with the United States.

We then had the MPs expenses scandal – which confirmed what we all thought.  They were a group of privileged people who were out for what they could get.  True or not this was the perception.

The change of government didn’t seem to help.  We were told the country was close to being bankrupt.  Although it was the fault of the banks we needed to take our share of the blame – everybody of course with the exception of the banks who were too big to fail, spent a period in purgatory and then went back to making huge profits

Further revelations followed, the MP’s expenses, press intrusion, politicians cosying up to Rupert Murdock and so it goes on.  The outcome of all of this of course was that the public didn’t trust politicians and perhaps more importantly didn’t believe what they were being told.

So forward to the General Election in 2015.  Rather than sweeping to power the Conservative Government fell over the finishing line.  The problem for David Cameron was that whilst he had a working majority the numbers were slim and he has a number of issues with members who wanted to leave the EU.  Hence Brexit – but that’s another story.

Left, Jereym Corbyn, current leader of the Labour Party in the U.K.

The problem for Labour is that they lost when they should have won.  Ed Milliband resigned and it was time to elect a new leader for Labour.  You had the usual ‘mainstream’ candidates coming forward.  Scraping in as a ‘no hoper’ was Jeremy Corbyn the stalwart of the left.  Up until this point he had always been characterised as a maverick, didn’t support the party line and had been a strong supporter of Michael Foot in the 1980s.  

Whilst not seen as a strong candidate what he did have was the support of those who had been disillusioned by politics – someone who was ‘non-establishment’ and didn’t carry the baggage of the past.  He started to gain strength, won the first party election, was deposed by MPs and then won the second party election by an ever greater majority. 

From a position of ‘no-hoper’ he was now undisputed leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of Her Majesties Opposition.  Democracy in the UK is unusual in having an official opposition.  These are posts that are fully funded by central government and have an important role in calling the government of the day to account.  However to do  this the Leader of the opposition needs to have the support of their MP’s and its clear that Jeremy Corbyn doesn't.

After his latest election its clear that the Labour MPs are waiting until the time is right.  There is talk of a General Election in 2017.  If opinion poles are to be believed then it is likely that Labour will fair very badly and the Conservatives will have a significant majority that could ensure that they are in power for the next 10 to 15 years before they are seriously challenged again.

There will then be a period on infighting which has a number of potent outcomes.  It could be restructured Labour Party as happened in the 1980s, the rise of a new political group to take the centre ground of British Politics or even the emergence of the Liberal Democrats.

Whatever happens the next 20 years are likely to be extremely challenging for the centre left of British Politics – and that’s before Brexit, Scottish Devolution, English Devolution, Welsh Devolution, Cornish Devolution…..

Whatever happens its going to be interesting …….

Regards

Andrew

Comments?