As if Gordon Brown doesn't have enough on his plate, there is a worrying article in today's issue of the New Statesman magazine that will go to top of his overflowing in-tray. Jon Cruddas (pictured), the independent-minded Labour MP who brought a breath of fresh air to the party's deputy leadership contest this year, has penned a powerful attack on New Labour with his backbench colleague Jon Trickett.
They argue that the New Labour project has stretched the party to "breaking point" and left its new leadership "horribly exposed" (that's certainly how Brown must be feeling right now). But they say Brown still has a chance to recover if he tacks left and mixes "power with principle". The PM's problem is that he is being buffeted from all sides: the Blairites are telling him the opposite, that he must re-connect with Middle England rather than appeal to the party's core vote.
Cruddas is taken seriously in Downing Street. After he came a creditable third in the deputy leadership election behind Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson, Brown tried hard to get him on board in a party or ministerial post. But the Dagenham MP kept his distance, which may prove a wise move as his hands would be clean if Brown's term ends in tears. Indeed, some Brown allies believe that Cruddas would be well-placed to beat Brown's favoured successor Ed Balls in the next leadership race. Get your money on now while the going is good!
This is how the Labour party split horribly last time. You can just see it coming - the ones intent on hanging on in power and the ones who have some kind of actual ideological belief are going to slowly grind themselves towards a position where the party is once again unelectable. Cruddas would make a great leader, but that would mean a seachange in (New) Labour thinking and strategy. At the moment, a seachange is exactly what they need.
Posted by: Carin | Thursday, 06 December 2007 at 11:23 AM
The left of the party have stayed silent for too long. The Iraq war was certainly the low point for Labour, dragged screaming and kicking into a mire which will be long remembered by the voters. For the future the leadership must be curtailed and power to move to war should not be in the hands of the PM and a few henchmen. Above all there needs be be honesty and openness in Government. Although there is two years to go before the next election the funding crises in the party and the march into the current quagmire, make it very likely that there will be a change of government at the next election. Perhaps a period in opposition will allow Labour to openly debate the way ahead
Posted by: Donald L Reid | Thursday, 06 December 2007 at 02:45 PM
Jon Cruddas was brilliant during the Deputy Leadership campaign. I remember him writing in the Observer a bit before the election for the Deputy, and he wrote an excellent account of what needs to change for Labour.
Just can't quite see him being an imminent threat to Gordon or even Harriott yet though
Posted by: Joel | Thursday, 06 December 2007 at 07:22 PM
Ah, Jon Cruddas. He's our John Redwood, and like the original, he offers nothing more than political atavism. Those of us committed to left-wing government must remember that arguments very like these have been advanced when the Party was in trouble before.
They were wrong in 1952, wrong in 1979, and they're still wrong now. A Cruddas-led Labour party would go nowhere but into the political wilderness.
Posted by: Stephen Bush | Sunday, 09 December 2007 at 07:29 PM
If John Cruddas is elected leader of the Labour Party, then they might as well hand the next general election victory to Cameron on a plate. A Labour Party that lurches back to the left will completely alienate Middle England and a good slice of their remaining support for the Government in key marginal seats. If anything New Labour needs to re-affirm its position in the centre ground of British politics, thus marginalising the Conservatives, if Brown wants to win an unprecedented 4th term for his party.
Any swing back to 'Old' Labour socialism will ruin the party and hand a whopping majority to David Cameron....the electorate will still vote the way their wallets tell them to!
Posted by: Charles Hocking | Wednesday, 19 December 2007 at 09:24 AM