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| Corbyn's reshuffle ensures his own views are better represented in key posts and increases representation of women, but has been soured by more squabbling. Photograph: Jeremy Corbyn at CWU Manchester event in October 2015. |
Ahead of the return of MPs to their work at Westminster on Tuesday, Jeremy Corbyn set out to give the Labour Party a fresh start to 2016. In the light of the divisions in his shadow cabinet during his first few months, Corbyn sought to do this with a reshuffle of his team (Mason, 2016).
For progressives, whether supporters of either Corbyn or Labour's 'moderate' faction, or neither, a fresh start has to be considered a positive step. However, as seems to be becoming an unfortunate trend, the effort looks at risk of being buried beneath internal squabbling.
That would be a disappointing start for the Left in 2016. While some victories have been won by progressives in opposition, in only a very few months - like stopping the implementation of tax credit cuts and at least delaying the eventual onset of their affects (Stewart et al, 2015) - the Left still needs to rally and present an effective opposition in the year ahead.
Despite rumours and speculation, facts were scarce as Jeremy Corbyn set about the task of reshuffling Labour's shadow cabinet on Monday. The clearest consensus seemed to be that making too drastic of a change would be foolish (Kuenssberg, 2016), as it might be interpreted as the taking of revenge on some shadow cabinet members who had spoken out against the party line.
In the event, the reshuffle itself was small in scale (Perraudin, 2016) - although it took days to resolve itself, almost running over into Prime Minister's Questions. Only Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden were ousted from the portfolio's of Culture and Europe, respectively. Maria Eagle moved sideways to culture, replaced in the Defence portfolio by Emily Thornberry, with Pat Glass taking on the Europe brief - certainly increasing the representation of women on the Labour frontbench.
However, controversies have still arisen even from those small alterations. Labour's, now former, frontbencher Michael Dugher took to twitter and the media circuit to denounce Corbyn, claiming he had been sacked for being straight talking and honest (ITV, 2016). Other rumours circle as to why certain MPs were singled out, with words like disloyalty and incompetence being used, and other frontbench MPs have resigned (BBC, 2016; Sparrow, 2016).
To let the beginning of a new year be eaten by more infighting would be a tragic state of affairs for the Left. Some sort of symbolic break, even small, from the first few months could have been a positive move, establishing Labour on a new plateau. After three months in charge, while there had been difficulties and threats of splits, Labour had also, nonetheless, had some successes upon which to build such a position.
At the moment, Corbyn is the Left's most prominent leader - seen as a principled man, an idealist (White, 2016), and as a leader willing also to be an activist, out on the streets in support of a cause (Perraudin, 2016{2}). Corbyn won the Labour leadership election with a huge swell of public support, his party comfortably won the Oldham by-election, and they were also deeply involved in forcing the Chancellor to backdown over the implementation of cuts to tax credits.
Coming up in 2016 are local council, London Mayoral, Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament elections in the Spring, and potentially the EU referendum in the Summer, in all of which progressives need to present a strong and coherent message. There are also policies like the Conservative's Housing Bill that need to be properly scrutinised and opposed. Yet that can only be the case if progressives can come together and working constructively, side by side for the common good.
That means the Left, and in particular Labour, need to learn to play nicely with others - as the political system in the UK still gives too much power to one faction for any single opposition party to make much headway alone. The various groups in opposition need to start finding real ways of working together on common issues - particularly, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, but also with the progressive though nationalist groups like the SNP and Plaid Cymru.
A reset, and a fresh start, would have been nice for the Left. For now though, the best that the Left can hope for from Labour is that bridges begin to be rebuilt. The squabbling has to stop (Jones, 2016). Labour's MPs have to remember that their party is the largest on the Left and that the position comes with a responsibility to lead scrutiny of the government - a government that has shown itself to be far less than invulnerable. The time has come to focus on that battle rather than internal intrigues.
References
Rowena Mason's 'Jeremy Corbyn begins cabinet reshuffle amid speculation about foreign and defence jobs: Labour leader confirms shakeup of top team as he attends campaign in London against rising rail fares'; in The Guardian; 4 January 2016.
Heather Stewart, Nicholas Watt & Rowena Mason's 'George Osborne scraps tax credit cuts in welfare U-turn: Chancellor says in autumn statement that improvement in public finances means he is able to ditch controversial cut'; in The Guardian; 25 November 2015.
Laura Kuenssberg's 'Corbyn reshuffle: End of the new politics?'; on the BBC; 4 January 2016.
Francis Perraudin's 'Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet reshuffle: who's in and who's out - The Labour leader is reshuffling his top team: here’s what we know so far'; in The Guardian; 5 January 2016.
'Dugher changes Twitter profile after Corbyn 'sacking''; on ITV News; 5 January 2016.
''Straight talking' @MichaelDugher changes Twitter profile after Corbyn 'sacking''; for ITV News; from Twitter; 5 January 2016.
'Labour reshuffle: Hilary Benn 'not muzzled' by Corbyn'; on the BBC; 6 January 2016.
Andrew Sparrow's 'Kevan Jones becomes third shadow minister to resign following Corbyn's reshuffle – Politics live'; in The Guardian; 6 January 2016.
Michael White's 'Amid the reshuffle frenzy, principled Corbyn evokes ghost of Labour past: Historically minded voters have been quick to spot the similarities between the party’s current leader and much-loved pacifist George Lansbury'; in The Guardian; 4 January 2016.
Frances Perraudin's 'Jeremy Corbyn joins activists at King's Cross for rail fare rises protest: Labour leader attends gathering of party and union members as they leaflet passengers in London about the 1.1% rise'; in The Guardian; 4 January 2016{2}.
Owen Jones' 'Labour’s war of attrition must end – or the Tories will keep running amok: After this reshuffle the party’s leadership must make a pact with its MPs to focus their fire on the government, rather than each other'; in The Guardian; 5 January 2016.
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