In the week, The Times published polling that suggested large number of Liberal Democrat and Green voters would be prepared to support Labour if they were the party best positioned to block Reform from winning a seat. 57% and 46% respectively, to be precise. Crazily, 39% of Lib Dems, 34% of Labour, and 19% of Greens would even vote Tory to keep Reform out. Something Nigel Farage would be grateful for as a lash up between the two is likely, considering the Tory adoption of outright racism, and Farage's new found love for the Tories' oligarch-friendly economics.
Of interest were comments from The Graun's political editor, Pippa Crerar. Reiterating one of Westminster's worst-kept secrets, she said that this polling backed up Morgan McSweeney's view. I.e. That people will vote Labour come what may to keep Farage out of office. The implication is clear. The political direction of the government doesn't need to change. "Even if they hate us, they hate Farage more," said Sweeney McMorgan, a close ally of the Prime Minister's chief of staff.
As recently noted, politically he's no nore a genius than most Labour MPs. He ran Liz Kendall's ill-fated Labour leadership push on a Blairite ticket that he thought would prove popular. And when the parliamentary party were despairing about whether they would ever get their control back, his clever-clever strategy was to build a leadership campaign based around lies. Not once did he offer a political justification, because like the milieu he sprung from he was incapable of doing so. He knew how to ban people from running as Labour candidates, once he had control of the party apparatus. He knew how to expel people. McSweeney also knows how to gloat publicly about what he's done. But win an argument? Do a politics? Not so much. That's why he bounced Keir Starmer into hiring Peter Mandelson, so he could ring up Washington and pick his brains when lies and and bullshit couldn't cut it.
McSweeney's fondness for it's us or Farage underlines his stupidity. This strategy worked so well for the Democrats in the US, and the SPD in Germany. And with Labour attacking its support base and driving them away to the likes of the Greens, there's no reason to believe the result here would be any different. If, for instance, you're a trans person, why would it matter to you whether the government denying you your rights and your health care are Labour or Reform? Or if your disability support is getting cut? Or if housing is out of your reach? Or if their stoking of racism is a matter of degree and not of kind?
None of this matters to Labour's leadership. Should the party get wiped out, a miserable, penurious fate of multiple directorships and nice executive jobs await. Nick Clegg-style options will be available to some of them. Even better from the standpoint of British capital, Starmer's disastrous leadership is on the verge of liquidating organised labour as a political force. Something worth a shower of damehoods, gongs, and knights garter.
The problem McSweeney has that he is willing to push this, but Labour MPs are less keen. They can see the polls. they can see the disintegration of Labour's base tracked in by-elections. They know from their own dire voter ID data the leadership's hubris has opened the door to their nemesis. And they also know that no party or Prime Minister has ever recovered from the terrible ratings that have been posted this year. They should remove Starmer, McSweeney, and this useless cabinet of the crooked, the criminal, and the crap if they want to stand a chance.
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