LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2020) The report compiled by the UK Labour Party on reasons of its defeat in last year's snap elections has failed to address a protracted internal sabotage of former opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, Chris Williamson, a former Labour member of parliament, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
The 154-page report admits that the Labour Party suffered from a "terrible defeat" in December, something that resulted not only in the loss of 59 seats but a clear and evident majority of 80 for the current Tory government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Consulting a variety of lawmakers, trade unionists and rank and file activists, the report published by the party group, Labour Together, concludes much of the blame can be placed on the unpopularity of the then-leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as well as an apparently confused position on Brexit.
"They emphasized the alleged unpopularity of Jeremy but what they didn't concede is that some of the people, if not all, the so-called commissioners and authors of the report, didn't acknowledge that the Parliamentary Labour Party were instrumental in generating unpopularity in the constant undermining and criticism of Jeremy. Nor did they acknowledge the out and out sabotage by people at the heart of the party, in the bureaucracy who did their very best to ensure Labour didn't win the election in 2017. And they didn't do much to help in 2019 either," Williamson said.
According to the ex-lawmaker for the Derby North constituency, while polling results made it clear to all that Corbyn's program was very unpopular, framing it as the only cause of the defeat is "missing the point."
"They did their best of course to make the election about [Corbyn] and Brexit and undermine him. The media didn't help of course but the Parliamentary party made it easier for them to demonize and defame him as they were providing the ammunition that the media were willing to fire," Williamson said.
Asked about the party's stance on Brexit, which had changed from an initial acceptance of the pro-Brexit referendum result of 2016 to one of effectively endorsing a second referendum, Williamson argued that Labour had indeed lost an opportunity, something that could have resulted in the party seizing the Conservative government's slogan "Get Brexit Done" for their own benefit.
"That could have been Labour's slogan too but we could have added to that and deliver a people's Brexit rather than a banker's Brexit which is essentially where we are going with the Tories in office," the ex-lawmaker opined, adding that the ultimate strategy based on democratic principles would have been to accept the 2016 referendum results as adamant in the first place, in which case the party would get "a very different outcome."
Williamson, who himself initially supported the option of the UK remaining within the EU, also argued that current party leader Keir Starmer had been instrumental in changing Labour's position to favor a second referendum. Rather than grapple with this reality, he claimed, the Labour's report was effectively an attempt to over-emphasis Corbyn's alleged unpopularity, something which an otherwise hostile mainstream media had been eager to capitalize on.
"They've failed to admit the key problems that led to the catastrophic election result was internal difficulties that had been generated by the Parliamentary Labour Party, bureaucracy and the current leadership. They are not now going to acknowledge that [and] by refusing to accept that those were the key cornerstones of the party's demise is just dishonest," Williamson said.
Williamson argued that the party's chances of regaining power were now dependent on a previously hostile media taking their side. This may indeed happen, he claimed, given the current leadership ostensibly lacks the socialist credentials of their immediate predecessors, something that would prove more palatable to the "corporate elites" within the UK otherwise alarmed at past Labour policies of wealth redistribution and public ownership.
The opposition also saw significant losses in the so-called Red Wall Constituencies of the north of England and the Midlands, many of which voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, in part because of the party's allegedly ambiguous policy on Brexit. The report authors do, however, admit that the party made impressive gains in popularity during the 2017 election yet failed to adequately capitalize on them.
The end result, the authors conclude, was a campaign out of touch with local communities whilst burdened with an unpopular leader and an unclear Brexit position, all of which ultimately caused Labour's December losses.
