Entryism - helping Jeremy Corbyn go from 100-1 outsider to 1-3 favourite |
The unusual
way the Labour Party are conducting their current leadership contest has its
roots in the last one. The national choice of their party membership was David
Miliband but Ed Miliband got over the line due to Trade Union votes. This was
true in Crawley where the local Labour Party publically nominated David
Miliband but ended up having to pretend for five years that his brother was the
chosen one.
Labour recognised
they had to change their leadership election system but what they came up with
is increasingly likely to produce the wrong outcome, meaning Labour could have
another unelectable leader for another five years. The problem now is that the
system they created is open to blatant entryism, with half of all those with a
vote having signed up since after the general election. I also suspect that returned
votes will be higher among the new ‘members’ than the existing members. Entryism
may well make Jeremy Corbyn leader of the Labour Party, as many pundits are
saying most people signing up are from even further to the left than Labour.
As I wrote
last week, oppositions whether nationally or locally need to be credible and
electable. An outcome determined by entryism is not good for democracy and is
of course unfair. Potentially, all parties can be at risk from entryism, including
down to a local level when choosing candidates, but this Labour shambles is of
huge consequence when picking a potential Prime Minister."
No comments:
Post a Comment