Jeremy Corbyn was not fit to be Prime Minister. But is Starmer?

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 am, September 4th, 2023 - 20 comments
Categories: Austerity, Jeremy Corbyn, labour, uk politics - Tags: , , ,

Originally published on Nick Kelly’s Blog

It is said that there is a thin line between bravery and stupidity. Posting a link to my blog post which said that Jeremy Corbyn was not fit to be Prime Minister, to the ‘Labour London Left’ WhatsApp group. I will leave it to the reader to decide which one that was.

The full quote is below:

The 2017 election proved there was significant support for social democratic policies (eg national care service, public ownership of rail, electricity, water etc, and funding public services properly). But weak leadership on Brexit, failure to respond properly on antisemitism and now his appalling position on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine have shown Corbyn was not fit to be Prime Minister. But nor was Boris Johnson, as the Privileges Committee have confirmed. http://nickkelly.blog/2023/07/09/decoding-the-doorstep-insights-from-canvassing-uxbridge-and-south-ruislip/

Jeremy Corbyn was and still is not fit to be Prime Minister. I say that as someone who took time off work to actively campaign for Labour in 2019. I also say this as a Labour member who supported the 2017 and (with some criticisms) the 2019 Labour manifesto policies, many of which would not have been there had Corbyn not won the 2015 UK Labour leadership race.

My ‘Why Labour Lost’ series of posts published after UK Labour’s 2019 election defeat (see links below) outlined the many and varied reasons for this result. Not all of it was Corbyn’s fault, nor indeed his faction Momentum. But they made serious errors and at times simply stupid calls.

More recently, Corbyn’s position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the last 16 months has shown that he lacks political judgment.

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I wrote the following of leftists who were opposed to giving military aid to help the Ukrainian resistance:

On the left, many are still influenced by the analysis of Lenin during the First World War and just before the 1917 Russian Revolution that in an inter-imperialist conflict socialists should be standing up to their own ruling class. During the First World War, there were strong arguments for working people not to align with the Tsar in Russia or other imperialist leaders in that conflict. It is dangerous to simply apply this idea to the current conflict without understanding that the context is different. There is a strong argument that people should be holding their own government or ‘ruling class’ to account during any situation like this. Ultimately, the decision to invade Ukraine was Russia’s, but there is still a question of what the governments and in particular NATO members could have done to help prevent this and what they can do now. Sadly, some on the left and drawn both bizarre and quite dangerous conclusions based on the premise that their role is to stick it to their own ruling class. Bizarrely, some socialists still mistake Russia to be some sort of socialist/anti-imperialist power, thinking that there is some residue influence of the 1917 revolution. http://nickkelly.blog/2022/05/03/the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-an-act-of-aggression/

Corbyn’s position of opposing military intervention and instead trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement is at best naive and at worst giving tacit support to the Russian Government and Vladimir Putin.

Back in 2003 when I was active in opposing the invasion of Iraq, one of our key slogans in Peace Action Wellington was “peace with justice and self-determination”. Any “peace settlement” with Russia right now would involve at the very least, ceding territory taken by Russia in 2014 and probably some of the ground taken in 2022. This ‘peace’ would not involve any justice or self-determination.

What Jeremy Corbyn, the Stop the War coalition and others taking this position are doing is not progressive, left or indeed socialist. It is supporting imperialist expansion. Further, and this should be self-evident, if NATO and Western governments fail to stop the Russian invasion, this will not serve the interests of working people. That this distorted world political view still infects sections of the left is astounding. That Corbyn subscribes to it, frankly discredits him as a serious political operator.

But I can understand why people on the Labour left would not like this assessment. Even more so at a time when various left groups and individuals such as director Ken Loach have been kicked out of Labour.

And there are serious questions about Labour’s current direction. Labour, whilst winning the Selby and Ainsty by-election, narrowly lost the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection. Whilst most attribute this to the Labour Mayor of London extending the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to outer London, this was not the only reason. On the doorstep, Starmer’s Labour Party may not have been as polarising, but nor were people excited by it. In fact, many were unclear about what it stood for. Labour improved its percentage of the vote in Uxbridge and South Ruislip significantly, but it still failed to make it across the line. This should be a cautionary tale ahead of next year’s General Election.

In my blog post earlier this year on whether UK Labour can finally win, I argued that the left needs to accept that the 2019 election was a devastating loss, in no small part the result of poor decisions by Corbyn and his team. Equally, his opponents in the party have still failed to seriously reflect on why Corbyn was able to easily beat them both in 2015 and when they tried to remove him in 2016.

The 2017 Manifesto included policies such as renationalising rail and water companies. It opposed austerity and called for decent funding for the NHS, a national care service, a properly-funded national education service and stronger employment law that strengthens collective bargaining. These are mainstream social democratic policies in many other European countries.

Why did it take a member of the hard left Socialist Campaign Group becoming the leader of Labour for it to put forward a mainstream social democratic manifesto, rather than an over-triangulated, incoherent and frankly visionless positions it too often had prior to Corbyn? In a country where life expectancy is stalling, younger people are economically worse off than their parents, where over a million people are waiting for social housing and incomes have been falling for years, there is a real mood for change. Not just a change of government, but of policy. This does not mean a sudden lurch left, but a serious and costed programme that prioritises the needs of the many, not just the few.

In the UK Labour Party, people are divided into binary factional groupings of Corbynistas or Blairites. Loyalty to leaders and personalities over policy is not limited to Labour or UK politics. But it is frustrating nonetheless.

UK Labour is on course to win the next general election, whenever that may be. Its long-term success in government will, as I have argued previously, require the different factions of Labour to work together. The left need to accept that the Corbyn project failed, and move on. The right needs to accept that voices to the left of Third Way centrism have a legitimate and important place both in Labour and in political life.

Below are the links to my ‘Why UK Labour’ lost blog posts:

Why UK Labour Lost? Part 1: Historical Context

Why UK Labour lost? Part 2: UK Labour’s strange loyalty to First Past the Post

Why UK Labour lost? Part 3: Its Brexit Innit

Why UK Labour lost? Part 4: Oooo Jeremy Corbyn

Why UK Labour lost? Part 5: Antisemitism

Why UK Labour lost? Part 6: New Labour and Blairism

Why UK Labour lost? Part 7: Momentum and the Corbynistas

Why UK Labour lost? Part 8: what it takes to win?

Why UK Labour lost? Part 9: What the party needs to do now.

20 comments on “Jeremy Corbyn was not fit to be Prime Minister. But is Starmer? ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    4 September 2023 at 9:29 am

    Anyone still rattling on about Jeremy Corbyn should look in the mirror. Recent film ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn–the Big Lie’ lays out some of what happened.

    There were two mistakes by Jeremy imo–a token leftist on the Labour leadership ballot at the time–#1 was not being a hard man in terms of deselecting right wing electorate candidates and not dealing with the snakes at head office.

    #2 on Brexit he overthought it when all he needed to do was say “we will accept the peoples Brexit vote, and introduce our programme of re-nationalisations for the many not the few”.

    Craven opportunist crawler Mr Starmer, like most neo liberals masquerading in formerly social democratic parties, is more interested in what the British ruling class wants than he will ever be in the working class.

    • roblogic 1.1
      4 September 2023 at 4:59 pm

      Yep. Corbyn's main error was trying to work with the Blairites, and expecting them to work for the greater good. He failed to anticipate the spite and maneuvering even after all his decades in politics. So perhaps he was too idealistic in that way.

  2. Tricledrown 2
    4 September 2023 at 10:30 am

    Starmer is Mr in-between stands for very little.People want strong Charismatic leader's. Starmer is week and boring just like Luxon

  3. Blazer 3
    4 September 2023 at 10:57 am

    Starmer's main attribute is that he is a very good debater.

    He's the new Tony Blair.

    • Bearded Git 3.1
      4 September 2023 at 1:37 pm

      Starmer has praised Blair on a number of occasions. This shows what a poor politician Starmer is because Blair is still hated by many of the party faithful.

      But Labour could be led by Mr Blobby and still win the election.

      I predict that it will be closer than expected because people will think Labour has it in the bag and so many votes will go to the Greens and LibDems because people don't like Starmer.

  4. Bearded Git 4
    4 September 2023 at 1:26 pm

    No.

  5. roblogic 5
    4 September 2023 at 3:01 pm

    FFS what a load of bollocks.

    Corbyn was deposed by right wing moles infesting the UK Labour Party and a highly effective smear campaign in the rabid British press

    Why? Not because of antisemitism or pacifism or any of that other bullshit. But because he spoke for the many against the few. And the puppet masters could not allow it.

    And thus the crony capitalists now have a free hand and the UK continues its trajectory of failure, from Brexit to Covid to poverty and corruption, the demolition of the NHS and environmental destruction.

    A tragedy wrought by the few against the many. Class war refined, distilled, and filtered by a smooth PMC apparatus.

  6. Ad 6
    4 September 2023 at 3:09 pm

    Under Corbyn Labour peaked at 31% before his last election.

    https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/

    Now it's consistently 45%, and Conservatives at 27% are lower than 2015.

    UK Parliament under Starmer is Labour's to win.

    Stay the course Starmer.

    • Tiger Mountain 6.1
      4 September 2023 at 4:23 pm

      Heh, what does it matter if British Labour–another international variation of LINO–“Labour in name only” wins the election really? The neo liberal structure and relationships and contracting, just roll over as per this country. Winning what in class terms? not much for the working class.

      Even the lesser evil argument, as I and others apply in Aotearoa NZ to NZ Labour, could now be foregone in the UK with Mr Starmer.

      Corbyn in essence annoys centrists, opportunists and pretend leftists because he activates their consciences–they know deep down they are mere whimps in comparison to an allotment tilling, principled socialist.

    • Macro 6.2
      4 September 2023 at 4:49 pm

      Dishi Rishi is more likely Labours main asset at the moment.

      Labour could have a Blind Dog as leader and still romp home.

  7. Christopher 7
    4 September 2023 at 4:03 pm

    I remember one British voter said that Jeremy Corbyn wasn't fit to be manager of the local garden centre, let alone leader of the UK Labour party.

    JC is better at activism than leading a large political party imo.

    [Please stick to your approved username, thanks. The second reason is that there’s already another regular commenter here who uses the username Chris. This is the second time I’ve asked you; third time and you’ll be out – Incognito]

  8. Mike the Lefty 8
    4 September 2023 at 5:07 pm

    UK Labour only wins elections when the electorate has had an absolute gutsfull of the Tories, which happens about every decade or so.

  9. Binders full of Women 9
    4 September 2023 at 6:34 pm

    It's been 46 years since a Labour leader not called Blair was voted in as PM of UK.

    • DS 9.1
      6 September 2023 at 6:43 pm

      And before 1997, it had been 47 years since UK Labour had won an election without a leader named Wilson. By your reasoning, the post-1997 party would have been better off running a Harold Wilson tribute act.

  10. LawfulN 10
    5 September 2023 at 8:45 am

    The antisemitism accusations were a beat up because Corbyn took the Palestinian side – thus he had to be destroyed pour encourager les autres.

    The UK is a joke country with joke politics. If you think the average voter in NZ is stupid, wait until you talk to the average British voter – it's hard to imagine more lazy and useless people. It has been like this for decades, which is part of the reason most of my family immigrated to Australia and New Zealand. I don't see why we should care: let them stew in their own idiocy.