The best and the worst of Labour are locked in mortal combat at their conference, less left and right, more the admirable and the despicable, often tussling within the souls of the very same players. This can be a detestable party, yet in its next breath the most uplifting, a soaring then plummeting rollercoaster to observe.
Admirable visions of all that could be under a Labour government were spelled out in John McDonnell’s radical stream of policies to make bad working lives better. Some working conditions have reverted to brutish pre-union days: the care workers, delivery drivers, warehouse pickers, overworked and underpaid. Ken Loach’s latest harrowing horror movie, Sorry We Missed You, previewed here, is a heartrending depiction of the working wrongs that McDonnell addresses. Shorter working hours and better pay are only part of Labour’s intent to shift the share of income, power and wealth at least back to where it was 40 years ago. Labour’s Green New Deal is a double win, decarbonising energy, insulating homes and bringing green industries to areas in most need of good jobs. From speech to speech, on offer are remedies for the decade of stagnant wages.
But all this jostles with a self-destructive madness strewing obstacles in its way. Brexit chaos is emblematic of Labour’s failure to focus ferociously on winning. Sometimes the leader and his coterie look as if taking real power comes second to sectarian, internal petty party victories.
For all those yearning for a Labour victory, this year’s conference is a pretty miserable experience. Paranoid determination to cleanse any traces of “Blairism” suggests a party in the grip of panic, not self-confident soon-to-be victors. The plot against Tom Watson was a dismal start. Labour students harmlessly selling printed copies of speeches, as they always do, tell of being shouted at: they have been summarily abolished as insufficiently leader-loyal. Trigger ballots for MPs stir local strife, distracting them from pre-election canvassing, door-knocking local members instead. Fixing slates for internal elections is an undemocratic affront, while failure to stamp out antisemitism is incomprehensible to most: some union interference reeks of an old poison. Obsession here with what would follow a Jeremy Corbyn defeat is in itself a recipe for that defeat.
Yet all that is only one side of this high-and-low party. Attending the conference is a good annual reminder of the sheer decency of local Labour people toiling for what they passionately believe – public servants, volunteers, carers, teachers, union reps and food bank organisers who are the backbone of communities and the party’s backbone, as ever. They bring stories of what a decade of cuts has done to their neighbourhoods, their experience of the effect of benefit cuts and services stripped bare, reminders of how severe austerity has been. They look on the state of the party mostly with despair, whispering fears that Labour in its present state may lose.
Mostly remainers, they see local members and voters fleeing to the Greens and Liberal Democrats. Many looked on aghast as Corbyn manoeuvred himself into a lose-lose trap by making the vote over Brexit policy a loyalty test: either the conference voted remain, which would be a slap in the face to his leadership, or else they voted to back their leader. That’s what they did, against the overwhelming wishes of Labour voters and greatly risking the next election.
Most know the truth of the YouGov poll for the People’s Vote campaign that found 72% of Labour leavers said they would definitely not vote Tory and 48% would not vote for the Brexit party. But only 14% of Labour remain voters said they would definitely not vote Lib Dem. Fear of Labour losing millions of voters to leave parties is exaggerated; the greater risk is losing remain votes to the Lib Dems and the Greens.
The spitting attacks on Lib Dems in every speech here won’t stop that flight. Better by far to look at the facts: Labour’s best hope of beating off Boris Johnson is by uniting parties in revulsion against the prospect of five years of his government. Tactical voting by anti-Tory forces requires less mutual enmity from both Jo Swinson and Labour, urging their voters to follow advice that will be widely disseminated in the 100 key marginals by a People’s Vote vote-swap campaign. That could deny the Tories as many as 60 seats. That would make Labour the largest party, to some degree sustained by Lib Dems, SNP, Greens and others.
That’s the prize. Johnson ought to be the most beatable proposition Labour has ever faced, banishing some of his party’s best people, ignoring the climate crisis and threatening to abolish all the “nannying” regulations he always mocked. He will promise tempting tax cuts plus lavish spending, a fantasy financier. Labour will offer far greater spending, but with tax rises for which they need to make a strong case. Lose the election this time and the case for tax not as a burden but as a price for civilisation will be lost for a long while. That’s why Labour’s manifesto has to be a watertight and best-costed case for repairing the decade of damage.
Brexit is only a manifestation of Labour’s woes, a party in transition. Trying to hold on to former Labour voters, now Brexiters, is a backward-looking cause. Labour has become far more progressive than it was, in tune with changing times and a younger generation – socially liberal, feminist, multicultural, pro-LGBT, open, internationalist and deeply determined to confront the climate crisis. That’s where most of its support now lies, where the future lies, why its supporters are remainers. That’s why its leadership has made a grave mistake in demanding the party stays firmly rooted on the fence.
• Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
