SIR Keir Starmer is battling to reshape the Labour Party in his own image, with the resignation of Corbynite general secretary Jennie Formby a clear indication of the party’s direction of travel, a political analyst has said.
Mrs Formby, a close ally of Sir Keir’s left-wing predecessor, confirmed her decision on Monday, having served in the post for two years, during which time she oversaw Labour’s general election campaign – which resulted in an 80-seat majority for Boris Johnson‘s Conservatives. The 60-year-old’s decision is also likely to have been influenced by her cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment last year – but Professor Tony Travers, director of LSE London, said ideological considerations will also have been a factor. He told Express.co.uk: “Jeremy Corbyn and his colleagues have spent a great deal of time rebuilding the machinery of the Labour Party and the National Executive Committee, and senior officers of the party in their own image.
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“Keir Starmer is a very different leader who is committed to moving on and making the Labour Party more electable and he is inevitably going to spend some time wanting to replace people Corbyn put in power with people that are loyal to him, who are going to work towards the objectives that he sets.
“There is no doubt Jennie Formby is not somebody who was going to be comfortable with a Keir Starmer-led Labour Party – and vice versa.
“Any question of any leader of the party would want the senior officers of any party to be loyal and have the same rule-set.
“There is no question that people put in place by Corbyn are in many cases a long way away, ideologically and in terms of loyalty, from Keir Starmer.”
Sir Keir, who comfortably won a leadership contest ahead of Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, would be working hard over the course of the next six months to draw a line under the previous regime, Prof Travers said – suggesting the ongoing national crisis might actually work in his favour.
He explained: “It’s an odd six months because of the fact that COVID-19 dominates all politics and influences the way that people think about both Government and opposition.
“It does have the slight advantage for Keir Starmer of meaning that if there is to be a bit more internecine strife at the top of the Labour Party they are going to get much coverage than they would otherwise, three or four months ago.
“COVID-19 does provide Keir Starmer with a period in which any efforts to reshuffle or change the senior figures in the Labour Party, and have an argument about it, will get less coverage.”
Sir Keir was trying to strike a balance between the old and the new, Prof Travers said.
He added: “With his Shadow Cabinet, and indeed many of the things he has said and done, they have been done with a view to keeping many if not all the Momentum-type politicians from feeling they have lost everything – Rebecca Long-Bailey is in the shadow cabinet for example.
“But the Labour Party, like all political parties, is a rough, tough institution, and it is hard to believe that he will nevertheless want to rearrange the party in his own image as much as possible.”
Prof Travers suggested the 57-year-old’s efforts were geared towards the next general election, likely to happen in 2024 if as expected the Fixed Terms Parliament Act 2011 is repealed.
He said: “At its simplest, he would want a broadly attractive manifesto with an electable leader.
“The last manifesto was not one and Jeremy Corbyn really was not the other.
“The 2017 manifesto was much more of a traditional manifesto and they want a manifesto which will look like a much more traditional social democratic agenda.
“Although again, that will all have to be judged against the backdrop of the fallout from COVID-19.
“In terms of the general long term position of the political parties, COVID-19, by radically increasing the size of the state as a share of the economy, and the likelihood it will stay like that for some time, it moves the economy towards Labour’s territory.”
Prof Travers also suggested the current broad consensus – and relative absence of bickering – which has characterised the coronavirus crisis so far would not last forever.
He explained: “Normal politics always reasserts itself after a national moment of crisis.
“Eventually we’ll get to the point where people are less worried about COVID-19 and more worried about unemployment or inflation or all the other things that are about the happen when lockdown ends.”
Asked about Mrs Formby’s record, especially in the light of the allegations of antisemitism within the party which dogged Mr Corbyn’s leadership, a Labour Party insider said: “Antisemitism has no place whatsoever in our party, and under Jennie Formby we took more decisive and robust action to root it out than we ever did before.
“We’ve imposed swift suspensions, and massively increased the rate at which cases are dealt with. We’ve also launched training and education to give staff and members the tools needed to identify the different forms of antisemitism and challenge them.
“This was Jennie’s number one priority when she took over and she can be proud of what we’ve achieved.”
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