Labour leadership facts

Submitted by cathy n on 9 August, 2016 - 1:44 Author: Dale Street

Between 1997 and 2010 Labour Party membership collapsed by 60% (407,000 to 185,000). Slight increase under Miliband. At time of 2015 General Election: 201,000 members.

Party is now biggest social-democratic party in Europe.

During 2015 leadership contest 116,000 new members joined. Between 12th September (Corbyn’s election) and end of year another 87,000 new members joined. By January 2016 party had 388,000 members.

Number of new Labour Party members in 2015 greater than the entire membership of the Conservative Party.

After launch of MPs’ coup against Corbyn over 100,000 people joined Labour Party in ten days. Of those who gave a reason on application form for joining, 80% wrote: to support Corbyn. (Under leadership election rules, all 100,000 denied a vote.)

In the 48 hours available to sign up as registered supporters in current leadership contest, 180,000 people did so. (Over 40,000 of them refused registration by party officials.)

Party now has 503,000 members (i.e. full members, not counting registered and affiliated supporters). First time since proper membership records began that party’s membership has passed half a million.

According to Owen Smith, speaking at a hundred-strong ‘rally’ in London in late July, the Labour Party is “teetering on the brink of extinction.”

Labour Party and Trade Unions:

At its 2004 conference the FBU firefighters union voted 5 to 1 to disaffiliate from Labour Party. Had been affiliated to party since the First World War.

The same year the RMT rail and transport union became first trade union ever to be expelled by Labour Party. (Some of its branches supported SSP candidates.)

In November 2015 FBU conference voted to re-affiliate to Labour Party: “Firefighters have come back to Labour today because we finally found a leader worth backing in Jeremy Corbyn.”

Leading trade unionists who have re-joined party because of Corbyn’s election as leader include: PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka; FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack; and Christine Blower (until recently: NUT teachers union General Secretary). RMT General Secretary is longstanding individual Labour Party member and Corbyn supporter.

In March 2016 Corbyn was first political leader ever to address an NUT annual national conference, and first Labour politician to address the conference since 2002. In May 2016 Corbyn was first Labour Party leader ever to address a PCS annual national conference.

At time of writing, Corbyn is officially backed in leadership contest by ASLEF, CWU, TSSA and UCATT (which backed Burnham for leader in 2015).

Only union backing Smith to date is Community (small right-wing union, backed Murphy for Scottish LP leader in 2014).

Labour Party Finances:

In 2015 Labour Party income from membership fees increased by 30% compared with 2014. Received over £9.5 millions in membership fees (compared with £823,000 for Tories).

Party’s overall income in 2015 was £51 millions, as against £42 millions for Conservatives.

According to party’s financial report, “main driver” of increase in income was “a growth in donations from all sources: members, online supporters, affiliated unions and high-value gifts.”

Increase achieved despite some traditional big donors ending donations to party and instead making donations (£140,000 by end of 2015) to private offices of leading anti-Corbyn MPs.

(Lord Sainsbury stopped donating money to Labour Party when Miliband was elected as leader. He donates over £250,000 a year to ‘Progress’, main right-wing faction in Labour Party. Chair of ‘Progress’ is Alison McGovern MP. Her CLP, Wirral South, has nominated Corbyn.)

Labour Achievements under Corbyn:

- Conservative government has abandoned proposed legislation or been defeated in Parliament on 22 occasions – far better record of defeats than in 2010-15, when Tories did not have an absolute majority and were in a coalition.

- Tories abandoned plans to cut working tax credits, which would have cost over three million families over £1,000 a year.

- Tories abandoned plans to cut the benefits of 370,000 disabled people by average of £3,500 a year, after campaigning by a coalition of disability groups and the Labour Party.

- Tories abandoned plans to scrap legal protection limiting number of hours workers can be forced to work on Sundays, after campaigning led by Labour Party and trade unions.

- Tories abandoned opposition to scrapping VAT on tampons, after ignoring issue in Autumn Statement (on economic issues) and then opposing Labour amendment to Finance Bill to scrap the tax.

- Tories abandoned plans to bid for Saudi prisons contract for training prison staff. (Corbyn has longstanding record of campaigning against human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia.)

- Tories abandoned plans to force all schools in England to become academies (i.e. be taken out of local authority control) no later than 2020.

- Tories abandoned plans to amend child poverty indicators, by removing income from definition of child poverty (which would have masked ongoing increase in child poverty).

Record of Corbyn-led Labour Party in challenging Tories has increased party membership and won back support from trade unions (see above), as well as winning him support of Young Labour (‘official’ Labour youth organisation) in leadership contest.

Has also won support from significant individual campaigns, such as Disabled People Against the Cuts, which has led campaigning against Tory attacks on disabled since 2010:

“You have supported deaf and disabled people’s causes for many, many years. You have spoken in Parliament. You have voted against vicious welfare reforms that have blighted our lives, often having to rebel against the Whip to do so.

As you fight to retain leadership of the Labour Party, please know that Deaf and Disabled people and our allies are with you in spirit and actively supporting your campaign.”

Elections and By-Elections:

Oldham West and Royton by-election, December 2015: Media and anti-Corbyn MPs predicted a UKIP win. Labour wins and increases its share of the vote by over 7%.

Sheffield Brightside by-election, May 2016: Labour wins with 62% of votes cast, increasing its share of the vote by 6%.

Ogmore by-election, May 2016: Labour wins with over 52% of votes cast, virtually unchanged – a reduction of just 0.3% – since the general election.

Tooting by-election, June 2016: Labour wins with 56% of votes cast, increasing its share of the vote by nearly 9%.

Labour has won all four mayoral elections held while Corbyn has been party leader: London, Bristol, Salford and Liverpool.

In London Labour won 44% of first preference votes. In 2012 election Labour had won 40% of first preference votes (and lost). In 2008 election Labour had won 37% of first preference votes (and lost).

In Bristol Labour had won 29% of first preference votes in 2012 election (and lost); in 2016 Labour won over 40% of first preference votes (and won).

In Salford Labour had won 46% of first preference votes in 2012 election (and won); in 2016 Labour won over 49% of first preference votes (and won).

In Liverpool the Labour incumbent had won 59% of first preference votes in 2012 election (and won), but this declined to 53% in 2016.

In 2016 local elections the number of council seats held by Labour was virtually unchanged (it lost eleven overall). If the voting patterns in local and other elections held in May were repeated in a general election, Labour would have done better than Tories (31%, as against 30% for the Tories).

Labour has also won a succession of council by-elections since Corbyn’s election as leader, often with an increased majority, and sometimes with dramatically increased majorities of up to 20%.

Opinion Polls:

In 2015 general election Labour was seven percentage points behind Tories. Opinion polling between then and launch of Labour MPs’ coup produced erratic results, even when different polls were conducted at virtually the same time. But general pattern was one of closing the gap between Labour and the Tories.

Around April of 2016 most polls gave Tories a four point lead, but other polls showed Labour and Tories neck-and-neck, or, on occasion, Labour ahead of Tories.

Between January and April this year: Labour polled within two points of Tories on seven occasions; polled ahead twice; and polled dead even on one occasion. In May elections, the results would have put Labour one point ahead of the Tories in a general election.

Labour currently 14 points behind Tories in opinion polls. But slump in Labour support and growth in Tory support have been simultaneous with launch and unfolding of the coup:

26th June: 36% for Tories, 32% for Labour. 10th July: 38% for Tories, 30% for Labour. 24th July: 43% for Tories; 27% for Labour.

By contrast, poll commissioned by the “Times” and carried out by “YouGov” in middle of April put Labour on 34% and the Tories on 31%. It also found that Corbyn had higher approval rating than Cameron.

EU Referendum:

Corbyn blamed for majority voting ‘Leave’ in EU referendum.

(By contrast, no criticism of Labour MP Gisela Stuart, leading figures in Vote Leave campaign. Nor of Labour ex-MP Tom Harris, who ran Vote Leave campaign in Scotland. Nor of John Mann MP, who campaigned for ‘Leave’ when not attacking Corbyn.)

63% of Labour Party supporters voted ‘Remain’. 64% of SNP supporters voted ‘Remain’. But neither politicians nor media suggest Sturgeon should resign for failing to mobilise SNP supporters for ‘Remain’.

The party leader who could not mobilise his supporters to vote ‘Remain’ was not Corbyn but Cameron: Only 40% of those who voted Conservative in 2015 voted ‘Remain’ in 2016.

Corbyn’s allotted role in referendum campaign was to focus on winning support among Labour Party supporters and youth. Both categories voted overwhelmingly for ‘Remain’.

By contrast, Corbyn’s foremost critics were unable to persuade their constituents to vote ‘Remain’: Margaret Hodge (Barking, 62% ‘Leave’); Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon, 57% ‘Leave’); Alan Johnston (Hull West, 68% ‘Leave’).

And Owen Smith himself: Pontrypridd, 54% ‘Leave’.

Undermining Corbyn from the Outset:

Even while 2015 leadership contest was underway Simon Danczuk said Corbyn would last no more than twelve months if elected, that moves to oust him would begin “on day one, if not before” as “people in the Parliamentary Labour Party aren’t going to put up with it (Corbyn winning).”

Jamie Reed, then shadow Health Minister, resigned from his position via Twitter one minute into Corbyn’s acceptance speech on 12th September.

Rachel Reeves, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Chris Leslie, Stella Creasey and Caroline Flint publicly declared that they would not serve in shadow cabinet under Corbyn.

In late 2015 and early 2016 John McTernan and Tom Harris wrote articles for “Telegraph” with headline such as:

“Welcome to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour – A Home for Every Mad Trot and Anarchist in Britain”

“Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Chancellor Is Cosying Up to Trots Who Hate Labour”

“The Labour Party I Love is in Hock to Trots, Islamists and Woman-Hating Twitter Trolls”

“Oldham (By-Election) Marked the Beginning of the End for Jeremy Corbyn”

“Voters Aren’t Applauding Corbyn, They’re Giving Up All Hope for Labour”

“Jeremy Corbyn Has Presided Over Labour’s Worst Week Ever. Until Next Week”

“Jeremy Corbyn Hero-Worships Murderous Thugs Like Hoxha Because He’s a Cowardly Wimp”

“Labour Members Deciding Party Policy is a Daft Idea”

“Labour MPs Have Only One Option – A Mutiny”

“How Labour Can Get Rid of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonell. In One Easy Step”

Smith/Background:

In recent interview with “Daily Mirror” Smith said miners’ strike of 1984/85 was his “political awakening”. But it did not trigger any political activity (other than as a political lobbyist for pharmaceutical companies) until three decades later.

Smith first worked as journalist and radio producer for BBC Wales for ten years; as special adviser to then Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy for three years; as an £80,000 a year political lobbyist for Pfizer for three years (during which time he first stood for election as Labour candidate); and then as political lobbyist at Amogen until elected to Parliament in 2010.

Smith/Miners’ Strike:

In July 2016 Smith said he agreed “100%” with position on miners’ strike taken by then party leader Neil Kinnock, i.e. NUM should have called a strike ballot. But Kinnock used NUM’s decision not to call ballot as excuse not to support the strike. In same interview Smith described Scargill as “gung-ho, and frankly egoistical and vain.”

In July 2016 Smith called for public inquiry into police attack on miners in battle of Orgreave in 1984. But the longstanding Orgreave Truth and Justice Commission has never received any support from Smith.

Nor did Smith sign 2012 Early Day Motion on policing during the miners’ strike, 2014 EDM on releasing documentation about the miners’ strike, and 2015 EDM condemning the IPCC for not investigating Orgreave. Corbyn signed all three EDMs.

Smith/Iraq War:

Smith now claims that if he had been in Parliament in 2003, he would have voted against the Iraq War: “I wasn’t in Parliament at the time, I would have voted against”. But in interview with “Wales Online” in 2006 he said that he did not know if he would have voted against the war, as the previous Labour MP had.

Smith/NHS Privatisation:

While working for Pfizer Smith promoted initiative to encourage greater role for private sector in healthcare, by opening up healthcare to greater “choice” (i.e. market competition) for patients, and to “direct payments” for some services. According to press release written by Smith:

“We believe that choice is a good thing and that patients and healthcare professionals should be at the heart of developing the agenda. … The focus groups also explored areas of choice that do not yet exist in the UK – most specifically the use of direct payments and the ability to choose to go directly to a specialist without first having to see the GP.”

Smith/Private Finance Initiatives and Academies:

Interviewed when standing for Labour in a by-election in Blaenau Gwent in 2006, Smith said:

“We’ve had PFI in Wales, we’ve had a hospital built down in Baglan through PFI. If PFI works, then let’s do it. What people want to see are more hospitals, better services. City academies in certain parts of inner-city Britain, where schools were failing, where children were not being well served, have made great inroads.”

(PFI-built hospital in Baglan did not ‘work’. Within a year of its opening: services downgraded; end of taking A&E cases; portering services outsourced; campaign launched to prevent scrapping of maternity services. Bill for hospital to taxpayer increased from £66 millions to around £300 millions.)

Smith/New Labour:

In June of 2006 the “Telegraph” ran an article on Smith in Blaenau Gwent by-election:

“A former BBC journalist, he was a special adviser to former Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy and is now a political lobbyist for American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. About as New Labour as you can get. Would he describe himself as a socialist? ‘I am a democratic socialist, yes.’ And Mr Blair, is he a socialist? ‘Yes’.”

A report in the “Independent” on the by-election reached same conclusion:

”Owen Smith is the fresh standard bearer for Labour, but one who has been selected locally. Mr Smith, a former BBC journalist, was a special adviser to the former Welsh secretary Paul Murphy. A dyed-in-the wool New Labourite, he works as a lobbyist for the American drug company Pfizer.”

Smith/Austerity:

In an interview in January of 2015 Smith said:

“I don’t think it’s realistic to say that they (public spending cuts) are wholly unnecessary. There is a very serious point that we don’t know what would happen to a government that failed to tackle its debt in the long run.”

When acting Labour Party leader Harriet Harman instructed Labour MPs to abstain on second reading of the Tories’ Welfare Bill’s in July of 2015, Smith abstained. Corbyn voted against. Bill contained measures to push 330,000 children from low-income families deeper into poverty.

In interview in September 2015 Smith defended spending less on welfare benefits and imposing a maximum on welfare benefits entitlements:

"We are in favour of an overall reduction in the amount of money we spend on benefits in this country and we are in favour of limits on what individual families can draw down.”

In a subsequent interview on “Newsnight” Smith said: "The truth is, we must still support overall reductions in welfare spending because I think that is right."

Smith/Migrant Workers:

Smith thinks there are too many of them in certain parts of country and they cause low pay. Asked in a “Newsnight” interview in July of 2016 if there were too many migrants living in Britain, he replied:

 "I think it depends where you are is the truth. In some places the way in which we saw a rapid influx in particular of Eastern European migrants after ascension of those countries to Europe, definitely caused downward pressure on wages, definitely caused changes to local terms and conditions for some workers in some sectors.”

Smith/Women:

Criticising Corbyn’s performance against Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Question Time in July, Smith said: “It pained me that we didn’t have the strength and the power and the vitality to smash her back on her heels.” He subsequently defended his comment:

“They love a bit of rhetoric, don’t they? We need a bit more robust rhetoric in our politics, I’m very much in favour of that. You’ll be getting that from me, and I absolutely stand by those comments. It’s rhetoric, of course. I don’t literally want to smash Theresa May back, just to be clear. I’m not advocating violence in any way, shape or form.”

Smith/Electability:

Smith first stood for election to Parliament in Blaenau Gwent by-election in 2006. He lost to an Independent candidate. (In 2010, when Smith was not the candidate, Labour won seat with a swing of 20%.)

Smith next stood for election in 2010, in Pontypridd (held by Labour for over 90 years; retiring MP was close friend of Smith family: Kim Howells). Smith won, but with a fall of 15% in Labour share of vote.

Smith retained seat in 2015 general election, increasing his low vote of 2010 by just over 2%. UKIP quadrupled its share of vote compared with 2010, increasing it to 13.5%.

In the EU referendum of 2016 Pontypridd voted 54% to 46% in favour of ‘Leave’.

Owen Smith’s campaign manager for his leadership bid is Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston. The CLP has voted 72-46 to nominate Jeremy Corbyn in current contest.

According to a survey conducted by BMG Research in late July, 75% of people intending to vote Labour in 2020 think Jeremy Corbyn would make better party leader than Owen Smith.

Owen Smith/Sales Pitch:

Smith’s sale pitch is that he has same politics as Corbyn. But, unlike Corbyn, he is also competent and able to overcome party divisions.

In first leadership campaign e-mail he wrote: “Jeremy Corbyn has reconnected our party with its radical principles.”

In statement for CLP nomination meetings Smith wrote: “At the core of my vision for Labour’s future is a set of radical anti-austerity policies. … Jeremy has been absolutely right to move us to being an anti-austerity party.”

In an interview with “Huffington Post” (July 2016) he said: “Jeremy is a man with principles and I agree with Jeremy about quite a lot of things.”

In interview with “Guardian” (July 2016) he said: “I think Jeremy is to be congratulated in many ways for having helped Labour re-discover its radicalism. … I’m going to be just as radical as Jeremy Corbyn.”

Smith’s record and statements demonstrate otherwise. Despite his claims that he agrees with Corbyn’s politics and has problems only with Corbyn’s performance as party leader, Smith nominated Burnham in 2015 leadership contest.

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