Blame for Labour defeat is laid at Corbyn’s door
AFIGHT has broken out inside the Labour Party after support for mayoral candidate Siôn Simon collapsed to hand his Conservative rival Andy Street a narrow victory.
Labour Party factionalism, trade union in-fighting, a lack of enthusiasm from councillors and MPs and poor support from the London party were all being blamed for the shock defeat by less than one per cent of the vote last week.
The poor show means that in 12 months the Labour Party had turned a 130,000 majority in the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner election into a 3,766 vote loss in the first mayoral vote. With a General Election campaign in full swing Labour members have not openly entered into a period of blood-letting – but behind the scenes members are seething – partly because the margin was so small.
Mr Simon’s campaign laid the blame firmly on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership – saying support and finance was in short supply. Mr Simon also found himself arguing over Mr Corbyn’s unpopular positions on defence and foreign policy rather than talking local issues.
Former Birmingham councillor Andy Howell said the campaign only received 25 per cent of the funds it felt it needed to fight the campaign. This included the refusal of a promised £10,000 donation from the Unite union in a row over Mr Simon’s close ties to union leadership candidate Gerard Coyne. By the time the offer did come it was too late and strict spending limits were in force.
In a blog, Mr Howell tells how all campaign resources were diverted to the Stoke Central by-election in February and that there was a lack of enthusiasm from a number of MPs and councillors to get out in support of Mr Simon’s campaign, and claimed they refused to deliver leaflets, bang the drum and knock doors for the candidate.
Parliamentary records also revealed Conservative MPs mentioned Andy Street 31 times in the Commons. Among those praising him were Theresa May and Chancellor Phillip Hammond. By comparison Mr Simon only got two namechecks. While a mention in the Commons is by no means a votewinner, it demonstrates the degree of enthusiasm from fellow politicians.
But Corbyn’s supporters claimed Mr Simon’s campaign did not work hard enough and did little to inspire the core Labour supporters to go out and vote. Certainly turnout in staunch Labour areas like Washwood Heath was low.
There are rumours that Mr Corbyn himself wrote to the campaign urging Mr Simon to up his game and offering his support – but this was rebuffed.
“Corbyn would have delivered those four thousand votes, but Siôn Simon didn’t think he needed his help,” said a Corbyn supporter.
Mr Howell added: “The party’s dysfunctionality is proving to be fatal.”