Barry Gardiner's bid for the Labour leadership (combined with Simon Fletcher, Corbyn's former chief of staff, joining Starmer's team), shows that dubbing Rebecca Long-Bailey "continuity Corbyn" was always deeply flawed.
Corbynism itself wasn't a singular political project.
Corbynism itself wasn't a singular political project.
Within Labour, Jeremy Corbyn represented a consensus that hadn't been tapped into until 2015 - that there wasn't enough of a difference between them and the Tories when it came to austerity, moral leadership, or participative politics.
As the euphoria of 2017 wore off, those 3 pillars took a battering.
Open selection was killed off, wrestling over Brexit and the ongoing antisemitism crisis undermined JC's previously strong public reputation for moral leadership, and in 2019 the Tories tilted left on austerity.
Open selection was killed off, wrestling over Brexit and the ongoing antisemitism crisis undermined JC's previously strong public reputation for moral leadership, and in 2019 the Tories tilted left on austerity.
What was revealed was a lack of a unifying political strategy which could hold together different factions on the left, let alone the left-right wings of the PLP, or the increasingly divided electoral coalition needed to deliver a majority. Maybe it was always impossible, idk.
In the absence of a political strategy holding together the left of the membership, the risk & opportunity for any leadership candidate is that the bloc forming Corbyn's support base is actually fairly soft. Votes can be peeled off by various candidates for all manner of reasons.
The frontrunners have one kerazyyyyy trick to defeat the Tories:
Keir Starmer - I look Prime Ministerial as fuck
Jess Phillips - The Sunday Times love me
Lisa Nandy - Towns
Clive Lewis is successfully emboldened the left to make demands on democratisation. And as for RLB...
Keir Starmer - I look Prime Ministerial as fuck
Jess Phillips - The Sunday Times love me
Lisa Nandy - Towns
Clive Lewis is successfully emboldened the left to make demands on democratisation. And as for RLB...
... she's making a pledge to the membership which takes seriously - and perhaps in places, overestimates - the left's commitment to a transformational policy agenda.
What's yet to come is an emotional pitch, addressing the hurt and devastated morale after last month's defeat.
What's yet to come is an emotional pitch, addressing the hurt and devastated morale after last month's defeat.
What I'm saying is that there's no such thing as "continuity Corbynism", because there was never a single "Corbynist" strategy.
It's imperative for Rebecca Long-Bailey to nail her one kerazyyyy trick. No one doubts her ability to preserve the best of left policy - it's about communicating that she's the one most able to inflict a defeat on the strongest Conservative government for decades.
