Angela Rayner has gone, and in the blink of an eye, before a timetable has been set, name after name has been bandied about for Labour’s putative deputy leadership election. Lucy Powell, Anneliese Dodds, Louise Haigh, Emily Thornberry, Dawn Butler, Clive Lewis – all have their supporters.
But hang on a minute – before we decide who, shouldn’t we be thinking about what? What is the role of a deputy leader of the Labour party, when Labour in government is so clearly lost, is tanking in the polls, and tens of thousands of members are walking away in bitter disappointment? When we are staring down the barrel of a Reform government and a Nigel Farage premiership?
Because this can’t be just about who leads, a parade of those who crave a top job for the sake of it, without taking the time to fathom why. This is about how we lead. As Labour’s National Executive Committee meets today to rush out the timetable to get what is, for it, an unwanted slice of democracy out of the way, what’s desperately needed is just a little time to pause and think about how the Labour party gets out of this existential mess. Indeed, it’s the moment to ask what political leadership means in the chaos, complexity and confusion of the 21st century.
Because the danger is that a unique opportunity will be lost for the party to have a deep conversation. Not about the usual commentary on who’s up and who’s down, on messaging and mistakes. But about what the role of a political party such as Labour is in bringing about the kind of society we want, and therefore what sort of leadership it demands.
There are two options. The first is shallow and will do little, if anything, to deflect Labour away from its self-inflicted course of self-destruction. You can see this route shaping up already: mild criticisms will come from people within the party establishment. They will say they understand the system, that they are an insider who can play the system and course-correct. But the fear is that they are the system, someone who will be largely loyal to the leadership and the narrow band of party bureaucrats who think they can sneak them past the membership. This will be fatal.
I can feel the bureaucrats’ hackles rising already. Of course, they will harumph, the deputy leader must be loyal to the leader. But why, when they’re leading you off an electoral precipice? Why, when they’re paving the way for a Farage victory, because they are merely imitating Farage? Why should they be loyal when loyalty sees so many party members throw away the card in despair? And frankly, why should they be loyal when the leader himself stood on a necessary and needed platform of polices to renew our country, and then rejected all of them. And now, because of it, he stands in the polls at astonishing Liz Truss levels of disapproval.
Grown-up politics is not about slavish loyalty to a lost cause. It is about navigating pragmatic compromises – or radical realism as the new Mainstream organisation, which I and many others have set up to save Labour, suggests.
To be clear, the job is not deputy leader of the parliamentary Labour party but of the whole party: its members, councillors, trade unions and affiliates. Part of the job is to act as a voice and a bridge between these different rich elements. Unity is not forged from the top down, but built from the bottom up – negotiated, not imposed. So, by definition, the deputy leader must be a pluralist. That doesn’t mean they are politically neutral – far from it – but that they recognise the limits of their own vision and actively seek out and heed voices and views that are different from theirs, and critically, to the leadership’s.
Finally, Labour needs a deputy leader who understands the need to marshall countervailing forces to those who stand in the way of social and environmental justice.
This is Labour’s perfect opportunity to show what 21st-century leadership is. Because it’s not about promising the earth with no capacity to deliver even a fraction of it. It’s not about delivery, delivery, delivery, as per some heroic CEO lording it over placid citizens. It’s about setting out a course, offering vision and hope.
On this job spec, let’s see who emerges. But of the people I know who have been mentioned, Clive Lewis, Lucy Powell and Louise Haigh stand out.
This is a moment for the whole Labour party to be woken from its slumber. It can take a reassuring or radical route. It can elect a chum of the prime minister or a champion of the party. Zarah Sultana has said Labour is dead. Zack Polanski has said the Greens will replace it. They will be proved wrong only if the party knows what it wants a deputy leadership for – and why.
Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass
