The Prime Minister may not be perfect, but there’s only one choice to make, argues Kevin Meagher
For the time being, nerves have stopped jangling among the Parliamentary Labour Party’s more timorous members. Ranks have closed and the coup leaders have been rebuffed – for now. In one of the most fraught and self-defeating periods in the history of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown’s shortcomings have been detailed at length. Now it’s time to stress his strengths.
Despite not being as radical as some would like, Brown is a democratic socialist and Labour to the core. He respects the party’s traditions and values in a way that many of his critics do not. It is still tactically wise to court Middle England, but not at the expense of alienating those who should be core Labour supporters. Voter apathy, demoralisation in erstwhile Labour heartlands and the rise of the British National Party mean a surer connection here is desperately needed. The Prime Minister is better placed than any of his would-be replacements to make it.
Just two years ago, Brown was the overwhelming choice of Labour MPs, trade unions and party members to replace Tony Blair. No other leading figures in the party had either the courage or following to mount a challenge. Brown’s mandate deserves to be upheld. Those Labour MPs who simply want to save their skins at the next general election are in the wrong job. Popularity isn’t permanent and political fortunes go down as well as up. Courage, unity and perseverance are needed to restore Labour’s fortunes. Cowardice and panic executions have no place.
Gordon Brown didn’t start the recession, nor did he encourage greedy MPs to claim tens of thousands of pounds for their second homes and avoid paying taxes on them. The big issues of the moment are not caused by Brown. But he is the man best placed to deal with them.
He has an honourable record. Almost single-handedly, he led the charge for debt write-offs for developing countries. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, he delivered Britain’s biggest sustained increase in education and health spending since the Second World War. Between 1949 to 1997, spending on the National Health Service averaged 3.5 per cent a year. Under Chancellor Brown, it averaged 6.4 per cent a year. Most of what has gone right for the Labour Government over the past 12 years has been down to Gordon Brown – at least in part.
Further evidence that he is the best person for the job comes from Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. Krugman has suggested that Brown may have saved the entire world financial system with last autumn’s bank bailouts, commenting that his “clarity and decisiveness hasn’t been matched by any other Western government”.
Similarly, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, described Brown as “without peer among the world’s economic policymakers”.
And Brown has the right policies. At long last, high earners will pay their fair share, with a 50 per cent top rate of income tax on those earning more than £100,000. Arch-Blairite Stephen Byers has described this move as “cynical”, warning Labour will “regret it for many years to come”. In fact, the biggest regret for many Labour supports is that it has taken so long to get the very wealthy to pay their fair share.
We should accept that voters would not forgive Labour for axing Gordon Brown, putting the nation’s affairs into limbo and embarking on a 23-day leadership selection process while British soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, Westminster is in chaos and the whole economy remains on the brink.
The mechanisms of a Labour leadership contest are messy and unpredictable. The party could not get away with a second change of leader in the same parliamentary term. While there may be no constitutional impediment, the act of reacting to the severe challenges the country faces with a shallow act of self-indulgence would destroy Labour’s credibility for a generation. And you should not choose the Prime Minister of this country on the basis of second or third preferences in an obscure electoral college.
In fact, there is no viable alternative. By his own admission, Alan Johnson isn’t up to the job. Harriet Harman has ruled herself out and David Miliband is out of favour with many of his former supporters. Plotters and malcontents would be the only winners in any political assassination of Brown.
Finally, there isn’t time to replace him. Constitutionally, the next general election must be held no later than June 4 2010. The Labour Party cannot afford the luxury of taking a month off to gaze at its navel while it chooses a new leader and then tries to rebuild and unite behind them in time for the next general election.
Gordon Brown is the only person who can and should lead Labour into that election.
Kevin Megher is chair of Bolton CLP
