Labour On The Brink Of Civil War

My Crawley Observer column this week is generating quite a stir. I can't say too much but it is a fact that it would only take one Labour Councillor in Crawley to defect to change the political control of Crawley Borough Council from Labour to Conservative. We are now less than 60 hours to the announcement of the next leader of the Labour party. Once Corbyn's likely win is confirmed, we enter uncharted territory. It won't be pretty.      

Jeremy Corbyn is set to become Labour leader  

"Unless all the predictions are wrong, this coming Saturday will see the Labour party elect left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as their leader. Stuck in a 1970s timewarp, don’t be under any illusion that he won’t be the most politically extreme MP to lead any major political party in modern British history.

It has been well documented that the Labour leadership election has been a complete shambles, including problems such as blatant entryism. It has certainly been apparent that voters made the right choice in May by electing a Conservative government, as Labour have proved themselves unable to competently run a leadership election, yet alone the Country.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party will have a majority of its MPs hostile to him as leader while over half of the party membership will support him. Stuck in the middle will be Labour Councillors - worried that they may have individually aligned to the ‘wrong’ faction.

A period of vicious Labour in-fighting looks likely as the far-left Corbynites seek to purge the Blairites, while the Blairites will fight to reclaim the party for themselves by trying to depose Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

Locally in Crawley, I can see how the on-going battle for the control of the Labour party is going to be all-consuming. This is concerning as Labour are nominally in political control of Crawley Borough Council with 19 Councillors to the Conservatives 18. I struggle to see how they can effectively run the Council while a civil war rages within Labour that could last for many years. They are set to be in office but not in control.

Amid the Labour turmoil, the focus of my Conservative colleagues and I continues to be the town we love and working for our local Council to be run for the people of Crawley in the best way possible. To the more moderate Crawley Labour Councillors - my door will be open if you wish to escape the bitter in-fighting. You can talk to me in the strictest confidence about potentially joining the Conservatives - helping to ensure our great town of Crawley remains top priority."