“It disappoints me there is no northern voice speaking at conference. The party is too London-centric.” This is an argument I have been making for years that Labour, whether locally or nationally, take their voters for granted especially northern Labour voters.
This time, though, it wasn’t me making the argument but the Mayor of Greater Manchester.
The Labour leadership, holding all five top positions in the Party, all have London constituencies and will all be speaking from the conference platform but there is no space for even a single Northern voice. Initially, both Andy Burnham and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, were banned from speaking but the London mayor gained a reprieve. The mayor of London has now been given a platform to make a major speech on behalf of Londoners but Labour have made sure that Andy Burnham’s voice is still unwelcome.
Labour increasingly only represent the values of an out of touch metropolitan elite so when they open up their platform for more people, should we be surprised that they put a Londoner first?
Prominent Labour figures are increasingly claiming that Brexit was only about immigration and that any desire to control immigration is a proxy for racism. They are desperate for Britain to remain in the Customs Union and EU Single Market. This would mean, in practice, that we have not left the EU as we would continue to hand money over to the EU every year, be subject to the European Court of Justice, not be able to control our borders, couldn’t negotiate trade deals with other countries and, ultimately, are a single step from re-joining the EU.
Labour won’t even debate Brexit at conference and their MPs are as shocked as I am. Labour MP Chris Leslie said “No Brexit vote at #Lab17 conference?! How utterly ridiculous. Many members will be shocked at manoeuvring to avoid biggest issue of our time” and Heidi Alexander MP said “I am gobsmacked. How can @uklabour not have a full & proper debate on #Brexit policy at #Lab17? We will be a laughing stock.”
What is it about Labour that they can’t have an open honest debate on the biggest issue of our time? Since the General Election, Labour have tried to obstruct Brexit and overwhelmingly voted against the European Withdrawal Bill which will take us out of the EU.
Tensions at the Labour conference aren’t just between the squabbling Labour factions but they are now spilling out to toxify the wider political environment. If journalists in another country required personal security because of threats and abuse from political activists we, in Britain would be rightfully horrified about the state of their political culture. Unfortunately, the well-respected BBC political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has had to hire a former soldier to protect her at the Labour conference because of serious threats and intimidation.
The Prime Minister, Theresa May, delivered a key speech about Brexit and set out clearly the British position that we will be fully leaving the EU and will not be delivering a deal that will appear to leave us half in and half out. I campaigned to leave the EU and I am clear that everything the Prime Minister has said, done and voted upon confirms that we will have an honest clear Brexit that will be good for Britain, the EU and our relations with the rest of the world.
People often raise questions over whether someone has a mandate to make one decision or another and often look at General Election results. With the German election results showing that Angela Merkel will, once again, be German Chancellor we can make a contrast with our own election result. Theresa May had 42.3% of the vote and Angela Merkel has 32.5% and will now have to do a deal with numerous other minor parties to form a weak and cobbled together coalition.
The process of forming a new German coalition government may take weeks or even months to complete and is likely to be unstable with widely competing interests.
In Britain, we have a huge amount to value and celebrate and the pinnacle of this is perhaps our democracy. We have a straight forward system that gives a clear result and an accountable government and we have a Prime Minister that has the values of public service at her heart and will listen to the whole of Britain.