Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, stayed away from a crucial meeting of the party’s ruling body in a show of deference to Jeremy Corbyn, privately telling the Labour leader that he would no longer stand in the way of party reform.
Watson is understood to believe that the general election result, in which Labour outperformed expectations, had given Corbyn political authority, which he may use to boost the strength of those on the left of the party.
His decision to avoid the meeting of the national executive committee (NEC) would have made it easier for Corbyn to win any crunch votes given how finely balanced the committee is between those fully supportive of the leadership and others who are more critical.
Watson has clashed with Corbyn’s team in the past, in particular on the subject of whether the shadow cabinet should be appointed by the leader or elected by MPs. He also angered the leadership by claiming that the party was being targeted by “entryists”.
Tuesday’s post-election meeting of the committee caused little controversy, although there is tension surrounding crucial votes on party rule changes that will take place in September.
The party agreed on Tuesday evening that it would select 75-80 candidates for key target seats to be in place by November to give the party a head start if Theresa May called an early election. Candidates from June’s general election could face a battle to keep their posts because the party is expected to push for at least 50% all-women shortlists.
NEC member and councillor Alice Perry said Labour “will need to ensure a significant proportion of seats are selected using all-women shortlists” and that Corbyn was clear he wanted a parliamentary party that was half female.
Before the party conference in Brighton in September, Corbyn’s team are considering a range of options, including the so-called McDonnell amendment, suggested by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, which aims to reduce the number of MPs needed to get a leadership candidate on to the ballot. Other measures include changing the makeup of the NEC.
Key trade unions, such as GMB and Unison, are thought to be wary of the change in leadership rules, so the amendment is far from guaranteed success.
One shadow cabinet source close to Corbyn said the issue was being repeatedly raised because of fears about who might succeed him as leader. They argued that it was only fair that the left of Labour was able to field a candidate who would then be put to a vote of members.
However, one senior party figure argued that Corbyn now had the opportunity to make the autumn conference “outward-facing” and to came across as a “prime minister in waiting”. They argued that too much focus on internal rules would be choosing to “cement his position as the leader of a dominant faction of the party” instead.
One NEC member said the energy spent on the amendment was a waste of time given that no leadership challenge to Corbyn was imminent: “The world has moved on, and those on both the left and the right who are making this a life-or-death issue should move on, too.”
At the meeting, Corbyn supporters aired some frustration at what they saw as an overly defensive campaign in June, rather than a bold bid to take new seats. Labour MPs who believed they were in real danger of losing their seats were allocated resources from headquarters and ended up substantially increasing their majorities.
Labour unexpectedly ran the Conservatives close in seats such as Hastings, held by the home secretary, Amber Rudd, and Chipping Barnet, retained by the former Tory minister Theresa Villiers, even though few central resources were allocated to those constituencies.
The initial report did not single out individuals in the party’s central office for explicit criticism, which is thought to have frustrated some in the leader’s office. Party HQ staff have argued that their internal polling showed MPs were in trouble and candidates on the ground genuinely believed they were facing wipeout.
Ian Lavery, the Labour party chair, and his fellow election chief, Andrew Gwynne, defended party staff at the meeting, according to sources. “They told the meeting that no one had the knowledge that comes from hindsight. Something really did shift during the campaign; it’s not a reason to attack staff,” one person at the meeting said.
A bitter fight over the summer will be for two places on Labour’s influential conference arrangements committee, which oversees what is debated at the party’s annual conference. One of the two Momentum-backed candidates, Seema Chandwani, has already sparked controversy after a blog described MPs as “Judases” and “talentless morons” and called on Corbyn to overhaul the parliamentary Labour party.
In the blog, published shortly after the election, she said failure to act against MPs who had criticised Corbyn would “leave us all vulnerable to living in hope that the spots have really changed on those leopards – always sleeping with one eye open”.
Chandwani, the secretary of Tottenham constituency Labour party, said Corbyn supporters should be ready for “round three” and claimed that MPs in parliament were organising “meetings of group lynchings and constant cowardly bullying by a bunch of talentless morons”.
She added: “On our own ship we had our own people play the role of Judas better than the original … Why do we need these people? What delusions do they have about their own ability? We cannot offer unity without having our demands met or the last two years have been wasted and we will find ourselves soon returning back to a place of abuse.”
Billy Hayes, the former leader of the CWU trade union, is also running for the committee on a leftwing ticket, while MP Gloria de Piero and Labour peer Michael Cashman are standing for re-election, both backed by centrist groups Labour First and Progress. Ballots close at noon on Friday 8 September.
