Labour Ex-MP Sells The Pass

LabourList is a useful site for letting us mere mortals know the state of current thinking in the new-look Labour Party. It is also, sadly, providing clear evidence of a tendency to soundbite quack centrism to the potential exclusion of actual policy, and indeed, actual commitment to tackle the kinds of problems that affect an increasing number of people around the UK..

Phil Wilson. No longer an MP

That soundbite tendency was in full view as Phil Wilson declared that a “right to food” campaign was not in fact a very good thing. Moving right along from the thought that he should have pitched the idea first to Spiked, so called because it should have been long ago, we are told “I can understand why we’re seeing campaigns for a right to food ... But there’s a note of caution to sound”. We should be concerned about moving to eradicate hunger?

But it gets worse. “We saw a Labour victory in Wakefield of which we can all be proud last month. Activists and campaigners came from across Britain to listen to voters – lifelong Labour voters, people returning to Labour, people new to Labour”. In other words, Labour threw everything at that by-election, something that could not be replicated at a General Election.

Wilson does, though, consider the cost of living crisis, and shows real understanding of what many families are going through right now. Then he moves along to “I want to see more money in parent’s pockets so they can choose the food and supplies that are right for their kids. I want a decent standard of living for everyone, not soup kitchens and food banks used as an excuse to keep benefits low”. And then comes the soundbite.

“Advocates of a ‘right to food’ often point to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … Pulling food out of that to stand alone means reducing our ambition for our people and our country, not extending it. Prisoners are guaranteed food - the rest of us should have the power to exercise freedom of choice”. In the future when no-one is hungry, perhaps. NOT NOW.

“Reducing our ambition”? REDUCING OUR AMBITION? People are hurting, with no immediate prospect of improvement, NOW. The sunlit uplands where freedom of choice may be exercised come AFTER the basics - like ensuring people do not go hungry. And the prisoner comparison is utterly, totally, bang out of order. Except that many in this country ARE prisoners - of poverty.

One hates to come over all Neil Kinnock, but here we have a former Labour MP - a former Labour MP - talking cheap soundbites in order to wave away real concern from a wide coalition of campaigners. It is just jaw-dropping.

So who is Phil Wilson? He was one of those who helped a young hopeful called Tony Blair get elected to Parliament in 1983. He took over as MP for Sedgfield after Tone departed in 2007. And he lost the seat in 2019, which I suspect will be Jeremy Corbyn’s fault, and not his. But he has got this one plain flat wrong. He should have this article pulled, say sorry, and think anew.

One look at the responses to the LabourList Tweet advertising the piece is all you will need to see the strength of feeling, the certainty that he has got it wrong, and the sense of sheer revulsion that someone in the Labour Party - that’s the Labour Party that is supposed to stand up for working people - is dismissing an anti-poverty campaign because it’s “reducing our ambition”.

This article may be effective in one way only - to turn people off joining, and indeed campaigning for, the Labour Party. It’s no good banging on about how wonderful the victory in Wakefield was, when activists are becoming disenchanted by a leadership that is seen as standing for nothing in particular. Activists who will be needed come the next General Election.

Activists who will recoil at crapulous soundbites like “reducing our ambition” and turn away from Labour. And that cannot be blamed on Jeremy Corbyn.

If Wilson’s soundbite becomes accepted as Labour thinking, Labour isn’t going to win next time. Lecturing the hungry about ambition? Get in the sea.

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