It seemed clear to me at Labour party conference that Jeremy Corbyn did not know how to lead. His shrill demands for followership are not a replacement for leadership. ‘Unity’ demands something to unite around – a programme, a political strategy and plan for getting Labour into government.
But leadership is also about being both shepherd and sheepdog. Not just setting out a path – which Corbyn is still yet to do – but finding ways to bring the stragglers along with you – which, it seems, he is yet to try.
In trying to sack Jon Ashworth from Labour’s National Executive Committee he rides roughshod over the all-important Labour rulebook and sticks up two fingers to those who backed Owen Smith this summer. Those who, he says, should unite behind him.
For the 62 per cent who voted Corbyn this summer, they get their leader at Labour’s top table and two out of the three NEC members chosen by the shadow cabinet. But that is not enough for this leader. As he seeks to strip, via press release, Ashworth from the party’s ruling body, he reveals his true hand: that he believes leadership is a winner-take-all game. That he has little respect for those who once dissented but are willing to return. That he views his colleagues who are prepared to rejoin his frontbench not in good faith but as fodder against the Tories and nothing more.
But in its meeting tomorrow the shadow cabinet has the chance to show the unity preached on our television screens. Who represents them on the NEC is in their gift, not the leader’s. As Ashworth has not resigned from the shadow cabinet, they have a choice. Either unity – by allowing Ashworth to continue – or uniformity – and sending out the message that there is only one view from here on in. If they go for the former the shadow cabinet, as a collective body, have a responsibility to show that diverse opinions are respected in Labour and that they will not simply rubberstamp the leader’s every edict.
Corbyn and his supporters like to paint themselves as the victims, but in sacking Ashworth, who stayed loyal all summer, they present themselves as the aggressor. It is neither attractive nor the force for unity they are trying to demand. Will the shadow cabinet stand up and be counted, or stand by while one of their number is sacked with their consent?
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Richard Angell is director of Progress. He tweets at @RichardAngell
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The socialists are now in charge. Ashworth is Tory-lite and he should not even be in the shadow cabinet. Corbyn has goofed on that one.
get over it, corbyn won with an increased mandate. he now has every right – as did blair – to form the party in his image if that is what he wants. clearly he doesnt. what corbyn does want is a return to traditional labour, the labour that new labour lost, all 5 million of them from 1997-2015.
across europe corbyn is viewed as a centrist, it is only in the uk where blair,ukip,tories have shifted the discourse towards the far right that the right wing tory heartland is called the centre ground by new labour plp mp’s and their allies.
recent polling indicates that its not corbyn that is the issue but the outcomes of labour government, new labour policies and the intolerance of the present new labour plp mp’s.
Richard,
you constantly astonish with your lack of self awareness. For a leader of the disunity campaign and from a group that has sought to ensure Labour loses in 2020 through its constant attacks on Corbyn this article is, at best, disingenuous and at worst deluded.
It is progress that has been and continues to be shrill and show a lack of respect for the twice elected leader. You choose to ignore the programme and path he has set out because you do not like it. You should be criticising people like Alistair Campbell, Alan Johnson and the Lord Blunkett for their desire, publicly stated, for Labour to lose in 2020.
Corbyn is seeking unity. The problem is some only seem willing to accept it if he abandons the policies and programme he was elected on and adopts neo Blairism.
I think the same argument could be presented with a considerably different tone. This contributor needs to move on from the resentment he feels as it is doing no one any good.
It’s astounding to read this from an organisation that conspired to create two new seats on the NEC solely to prevent Mr Corbyn gaining a majority after the elections for CLP representatives.
It’s time you threw your weight behind a united Labour Party and started taking on the Tories.
“but in sacking Ashworth, who stayed loyal all summer” interesting but to whom was he loyal ?