Massive Surge To Labour Showing For Next General Election After By-Election Victories
Labour won the Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire Westminster by-elections in the early hours of this morning (Friday 20th October 2023). But so what ?
However, this may be of little apparent relevance to folks in Northern Ireland, but as a lifelong Labour supporter, I was greatly heartened writes Jim Masson.
It was a historic moment never-the-less in modern Labour history showing that Labour Leader Keir Starmer is on track for a landslide win at the next general election.
He could even better Tony Blair’s huge win in 1997 – the BBC website says “no government has previously lost so safe a seat [Tamworth]”.
There may have been some strategic voting by Lib dems to get the candidates over the line, but in any case, Riski Sunak has little left in his toolbag to pull the Tories out of the political crevass they are slipping into after their failures on a number of fronts.
But I have to hold my hands up in the air and confess I watched The View programme hosted hosted by Mark Carruthers who was at his best last night.
Then I caught the Questiontime programme recorded from Lisburn hosted by Fiona Bruce and the DUP’s Sir Jeffrey did get a bit of a roasting it must be said but he seemed to weather it unsurprisingly.
Then I tuned in to the late night / early morning TV coverage on BBC of the two watershed by-elections – I am a glutton for political punishment!
It was pure mental deja vu listening to the same people offering their same arguments taking the same positions.
I have met many of them over the years and must say I have the utmost respect for anyone who choses to be a public representative regardless of their political persuasion.
However, in stating the obvious, our politics are in limbo at the moment. Eyes are all focussed on Sir Jeffrey and the DUP, but just for a moment I’d like to be the devil’s advocate and offer an alternative view (which may be laughed off by some with a self-conceited scorn, but I am used to that sort of thing).
The current political parties are stuck and they are all pointing a finger at the DUP… an interesting point of group dynamics… so, are they the scapegoat? Maybe.
I am interested in a lasting solution to the Big Question on getting the Assembly and institutions back up and running … and what the ‘left’ is doing to try and protect our economy, our NHS, our jobs, our mental health and wealth etc. Yes, I did say the left!
(Peels of laughter around the room and echoes of “Jim catch yersel on” with a Norn Iron accent!)
In Northern Ireland the ‘ left’ has been squeezed beyond the political margins.
The media and political pundits love a good conflict to be honest and what better to fill up the columns and airwaves each day or week than with reports about the two biggest parties slugging it out ?
Unlike other democratic parties in Northern Ireland, the Labour Party Northern Ireland interestingly is not allowed to stand candidates in local or parliamentary elections here.
Despite the huge wins in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire, Labour has just simply forgotten again about their brothers and sisters in Northern Ireland in the glow of the moment.
The Labour Party Northern Ireland has challenged consistently this position liaising over the years with the National Executive Committee (NEC) … their members are disenfranchised but the (UK) Labour NEC seems determined to ignore the rights of its members here despite saying it supports the Belfast Agreement and everything in it.
Labour members here in Northern Ireland even attended the recent Labour Party annual conference and convened a meeting to discuss this ongoing democratic deficit… as they have done in previous years, but it all falls on deaf ears.
Currently the SDLP is trying to find new political footholds to get a better grip as ‘opposition’ at the NI Assembly… but as yet there is no Assembly.
They have been talking to the Irish Labour Party and Fianna Fail, but I haven’t heard of any meaningful talks yet with the Labour Party Northern Ireland. I may well have missed it!
The SDLP is supposed to be the ‘sister party’ for the Labour Party Northern Ireland.
When I worked up at the All-Party Talks leading to the Belfast Agreement in the late 90’s, (I managed the Labour Coalition office for a spell), I was privileged to meet the most senior politicians and their cohorts from all parties.
Often I had lunch or a cuppa with them or just had a chat about an issue being progressed through the informal talks process before the plenaries when the two Labour delegates took over.
And a thought hit me one day when I was talking to David Irvine and Gusty Spence of the PUP. Gusty said: “Socialists ? We’ve got plenty of them in our ranks and social democrats too.”
Then I carefully spoke to other parties and learned they all claimed they had ‘left’ credentials. Interesting!
If so many parties say they have a sizeable sector of their members aligned to left politics ie Labour, then why is there not an active Labour Party in Northern Ireland ? My political research continues, but the polarisation that emerged in the Troubles in the early 1970s was likely a main key factor.
But the existence of the left per se is still inherent in politics here albeit tinged with varying degrees of nationalism (Irish and British).
A similar situation emerged with the Greens in Germany in the 1960s for a few decades. They never became a major party themselves. The other mainstream parties adopted green policies and values and diluted their efforts to be constitutionally elected en force.
I am a pragmatist and if there is a case held up for a United Ireland in the future for the better of all then I’ll readily accept it. Recently, Colin McGrath MLA was chatting to the Irish Labour Party about what an all-island health system could look like, a progressive step!
I did vote ‘remain’ in the EU Brexit election and my suspicion is that the UK Labour Party may well offer another referendum down the line to rejoin the EU once it has stabilised matters. But who knows what’s round the corner ? That’s for a discussion for another day.
But a huge amount of work needs to be done to include the PUL community aboard, and that will not be achieved while working men and women are consigned to political parties of national definition opposing each other.
The politics of division is a feature of colonial days long gone by.
So, we need a debate. We need to see the Labour Party Northern Ireland re-instated and given its correct democratic place at the political table in Northern Ireland.
In that way, Labour in Northern Ireland could with the blessing of Keir Starmer’s in-coming Labour government, create a new approach to politics on the island of Ireland and thus remove the negativities of the party political system here and free up democratic politics once and for all.
This is not a proposition that should be fobbed off and myself scoffed at. Just look at the state of our NHS and our schools and the food banks and Lough Neagh and all the rest of it.
Our ‘wee place’ is falling to bits and we are too proud and party politically driven to see the wood for the trees. I’m humble enough to offer my political tuppence worth.
Creating a new positive energy in politics in Northern Ireland can only be transformative and help to finally put the ‘right to stand’ in elections struggle to bed.
But we live in a country of scholars, poets and sceptics. I don’t expect these views to even make it to the vaulted heights of the Nolan show for a discussion, but it would be remiss of me not to suggest this possibility of getting out of our current quagmire just because I was afraid of a bit of political stick.
Keir Starmer and the Labour NEC could and should transform the stale, stuck situation in Northern Ireland… the question is, has the UK Labour Party got another agenda or does it see it’s brothers and sisters here as irrevelant ?
So, to summarise briefly, UK Labour could show consideration to the Labour Party Northern Ireland and allow it to stand candidates for election and open up branch bank accounts.
The presence of a working Labour Party in Northern Ireland would galvanise the parties to action for fear of becoming political irrelevancies.
Again, it is probably too much to expect that voters rush out and change their political leopard spots… but just look at Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire!
People there were sick to the back teeth of the dithering Tories and they dumped them… just like that! … as will happen eventually to any party who persists in holding up the NI Assembly indefinitely.
So this quiet revolution of political allegiances taking place in the UK in the two by-elections can also happen here in our own wee patch.
After all, it might focus the minds of the existing political parties in the creaking party political system that they have a job to do as elected representative in our devolved government.
Then let the people decide!
Congratulations to Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire!
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Food for thought… the views above are entirely my own !
See link to the history of Labour with the NI Labour Party:
See link to the current active Labour Party Northern Ireland and ‘right to stand‘ campaign.
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