What I think @JohnRentoul has missed out here, is why @AnnelieseDodds is there in the first place, and why I think it doubtful Starmer will move her. (whihc is also why the usual Corbynite suspects hace reacted furiously to the piece.
/1
/1
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1363398050065096704
Dodds has not, as Retoul's predecssor used to say, troubled the scorers in her role. It is a tough job in the best of times. Sunak is an able politician, however much he has messed up on covid. But she has no ideas and is a poor communicator.
Why then is she there?
/2
Why then is she there?
/2
Dodds was first elected in 2017. She was therefore not an MP when the PLP tried to remove Corbyn.
Most members of the PLP were not prepared to serve under Corbyn after 2017, so the pool he could draw upon was very small.
/3
Most members of the PLP were not prepared to serve under Corbyn after 2017, so the pool he could draw upon was very small.
/3
Dodds is almost certainly not a Corbynite. She was a dull MEP, with fairly bog-standard European social democratic views.
But, like Starmer, and unlie most of the PLP, she was prepared to work under Corbyn.
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But, like Starmer, and unlie most of the PLP, she was prepared to work under Corbyn.
/4
MPs faced an awful dilemma (one Labour voters also faced but less intensely).
Should the serve under Corbyn, in seeking to remove a government they all agreed was terrible?
/5
Should the serve under Corbyn, in seeking to remove a government they all agreed was terrible?
/5
But if they did, they'd be collobarating with a leadership that was, amongst other things, responsibe for making the party they belonged to institutionally racist (see the full EHRC report
equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication…
/6
equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication…
/6
Dodds made the same choice as Starmer (we know she wasn't a Corbyn true believer because like Starmer she refused to sign the comic "pledge" of loyalty that the likes of the much missed comic relief Burgon was circulating).
/7
/7
Starmer won the leadership in part because he'd been loyal to Corbyn.
The membership who elected him never wanted (and still do not want) to accept that the institution they belonged to had such a serious problem caused by the leader they had chosen.
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The membership who elected him never wanted (and still do not want) to accept that the institution they belonged to had such a serious problem caused by the leader they had chosen.
/8
Unsurprisingly, Starmer then chose as his shadow Chancellor someone also acceptable to the membership who had made the same compromises he had: Dodds.
/9
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The other candidates for shadow chancellor (Miliband, Cooper, Reeves, Nandy) all refused to serve under Corbyn (Nandy had initially and then quit in 2016).
What do you think they think of Starmer and Dodds?
/10
What do you think they think of Starmer and Dodds?
/10
None of them would be human if they didn't feel some resentment at how those who made compromises they refused to make are now in leaddership positions.
I don't think Dodds is going anywhere.
/ends
I don't think Dodds is going anywhere.
/ends
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