According to Prime Minister Theresa May “Brexit means Brexit.” For many in the Labour Party “Brexit means Betrayal.”
The lacklustre campaigning by Jeremy Corbyn during the referendum undermined the case for Remain. Reports from staff and senior Labour politicians alike have underlined this fact since the vote – Corbyn and his team steadfastly went through speeches and releases removing any praise for the EU.
His comment that his support for staying in the EU was “seven, or seven and a half, out of ten” was the most passionate he got. Corbyn didn’t care.
He has a long track record of opposing the EU – for him it fundamentally remains the club of capitalists which the hard left opposed in the 1970s and 1980s.
But it mattered to voters – they got the hint, and more than a third of Labour voters voted for Leave.
A better Labour campaign, a better Labour leader and the UK would still be in the EU. That’s not just my view – it’s the view of the Labour membership. Immediately after the referendum my local party held a meeting.
Its membership has trebled to over 500 since Corbyn became leader, and 24 people turned up, our biggest meeting ever. One after another they declared their disappointment over the disastrous Labour campaign for Remain.
They blamed Corbyn – Corbynista and non-Corbynista alike – and only one of them was going to vote for him again as leader. This discontent matters a lot in the leadership election because to a great extent London is the Labour Party – a third of members live there.
More importantly, it is the site of Labour’s biggest electoral triumph since 2005 – the election of Sadiq Khan as London Mayor.
Sure, there are a lot of Momentum types flooding into the London Labour Party, but the mainstream members are well-organised and have been winning council elections and running councils well for years – Blairism, one might call it.
London Labour likes winning, and that is the attitude and the politics that took Sadiq Khan to the Mayoralty. It is also the antithesis of Corbynism, which prizes purity above power.
Defeating the nasty xenophobic campaign run by Zac Goldsmith mobilised London members. Fighting for membership of the EU is a similar cause well worth the battle. Owen Smith has positioned himself well to exploit the massively pro-EU membership in London – he has promised a second vote on Brexit with the elegant argument that if you trust the people to vote to leave, you can trust them to vote on the terms.
This is the background to Sadiq Khan’s intervention in the Labour leadership backing Owen Smith. It is worth reading his words at length. He is unsparing:
“This failure was most starkly demonstrated in a heartbreaking way throughout the EU referendum. Like most Labour activists, I campaigned hard for Britain to stay in the EU.
“Campaigners told me that Jeremy was failing to persuade Labour supporters outside London, so I went to campaign in Manchester, Leeds and Bradford.
“I was devastated by the result, and have spent every minute of the last two months trying to salvage the best possible outcome for London and our country – and reassuring EU citizens already living in Britain that they will remain welcome.
“Throughout the campaign and aftermath, Jeremy failed to show the leadership we desperately needed. His position on EU membership was never clear – and voters didn’t believe him.
“A third of Labour voters said they didn’t know where the party stood on the referendum just a week before polling day. And you can’t just blame a ‘hostile media’ and let Jeremy and his team off the hook.
“I know from my own election – up against a nasty and divisive Tory campaign – that, if we are strong and clear enough in our convictions, the message will get through to the public. That’s a test that Jeremy totally failed in the EU referendum. Why would things be different in a general election?”
A winner condemns a loser. Brexit is the defining British political issue of the next decade – it may well come to define Labour’s future too.
