Solidarity with Jamie Driscoll

Another day, another stitch up. As everyone reading this will now know, Jamie Driscoll - Mayor for the North of Tyne combined authority - has been barred from the Labour longlist to retain his job. If you listen to the Labour right wingers defending the decision, it's because he hosted an Evening With ... session in which he spoke to Ken Loach about his films. Loach, you'll remember, was chucked out of the Labour Party because he attended meetings and events of organisations banned by Keir Starmer's NEC, and not the spurious claims of antisemitism put about by sundry right wingers. As for Driscoll, his exclusion by the notorious "due diligence" process absolutely had nothing to do with his support for Jeremy Corbyn, chairing his local Momentum branch, and beating local establishment heavies to the mayoral nomination in the first place.

But the question, as it always is whenever Starmer's purge-happy lackeys take someone out, is what is to be done? The NEC is packed with stooges, what is left of the left wing membership are dwindling, and the institutional means within Labour to force a reversal are not immediately apparent. In other words, Starmer and his NKVD cosplayers carry in as they do because there's political price to be paid. In fact, some of them would take a critical John McDonnell tweet and an angry Owen Jones video as marks of distinction.

With Labour stitched up like a kipper, how to make Starmer pay when he comes for left wingers? There are two paths open for a Driscoll fightback. The first is the one underway: using leverage in the party and the labour movement. This evening, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham put out a joint open letter urging the NEC to listen to an appeal. One undoubtedly accompanied by behind-the-scenes arm-twisting and getting on side sympathetic and reliable council and Labour group leaders across the North. Accompanying this was a press release from Unite. Breaking from her self-imposed silence on matters Labour Party, Sharon Graham said "What is emerging from Labour is a pattern of behaviour to literally take out any MP or mayor who backs key manifesto demands on the re-nationalisation of energy, action on rampant profiteering and investment in UK steel."

The problem with this first approach is, as things stand, nothing will happen. And that will be the case if the CWU and FBU also board the Jamie train and come out in support. As those fighting the institutional fight well know, if Starmer and the NEC are going to budge all the biggest unions have to be on board. The GMB, who are a bit annoyed by Labour's statement that it wants to stop drilling and exploration in the North Sea, might be amenable right now. You can count Usdaw out. And that leaves Unison who, historically, have preferred behind-the-scenes lobbying to making a scene but are guided by an ultra-cautious Labourism that is loath the rock the boat lest it damages the party's electoral chances. Starvation of funds, withdrawal of union staff on campaign days, no freebie literature, Starmer might be trying to pull off Tony Blair's strategy of only being reliant on wealthy backers but he's nowhere near yet and that makes the party vulnerable to this kind of pressure. The only problem with union leaderships, particularly when they're right wingers, is they have different ideas and rarely pull in the same direction. For a movement founded on solidarity, acting less than the sum of its parts is the status quo where their relationship to the Labour Party is concerned.

The labour movement campaign has another advantage though. A public fight for reinstatement will generate publicity and, crucially, sympathy among the good and mostly Labour-loyal people of the North East. That their Mayor has been deselected by Labour because he held an event with a famous film maker is how most normal punters would see it, and rightly conclude he was given the heave ho because Starmer didn't like his politics. We've seen similar situations before from local authorities to MPs to mayors, and where this sense of unfairness can tap into an insurgent dynamic Labour can be made to pay in votes and seats. Obviously, I'm not suggesting Driscoll is going to jump ship and run anyway. But if his reinstatement campaign goes nowhere, which is likely, then a hard-done-by story intersecting with the general distrust about half of Labour voters have of Starmer can easily fuel a protest vote dynamic Driscoll could ride back into office without the party ticket. This is the second option, is one Labour's strategists never take seriously but has, more often than not, caught them on the hop.

Here's the thing. Starmer's stitching is never going to stop until the left in the Labour Party get serious about thinking what costs it can impose on an overweening leadership who hold them in nothing but contempt. Until we're able to do this, Driscoll will be far from the last Labour politician to get the axe.

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