A tectonic shift?

Corbyn who opposes the austerity programme, which the Labour Party has supported, wants a tolerant and inclusive Britain.

Veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn is the new leader of the British Labour Party after winning almost 60 per cent of more than 400,000 votes cast in the party’s leadership contest last week. Here is a leader who had to be persuaded to contest these elections and he has now ended up trouncing the ostensible front-runners.

Though he himself had been a “bit surprised” by the scale of his victory, he has promised to lead a Labour “fightback” against the ruling Conservative government. The left-winger, who has spent his entire 32-year career in the House of Commons on the backbenches, promised to fight for a more tolerant and inclusive Britain, and to tackle “grotesque levels of inequality in our society”.

Corbyn opposes the austerity programme of the government, something which the Labour Party has supported with minor changes. He has spent his life opposing foreign military adventures, chairs the Stop the War coalition and is highly likely to oppose the UK extending air strikes against the Islamic State group into Syria. He’s not keen on the UK having nuclear weapons or being in the military alliance, NATO.

What this election reveals about Britain is that the country is changing significantly and after its defeat in the May elections, the Labour Party is trying to come to terms with its own identity. During this year’s elections, the Conservatives had faced desertions in favour of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) while the Labour Party got decimated on its home turf in Scotland with the rise of the Scottish Nationalists. Prime Minister David Cameron had to urge UKIP supporters to “come home” to the Tories, saying the general election was not the time to register a protest vote.

For Labour, the defeat meant emboldening of those who were tired of the New Labour project – a project that had ensured three successive elections victories under Tony Blair but which, according to some, had taken the party away from its core ideals. The election of Jeremy Corbyn signals an end of the Blair era in the Labour Party.

Despite an attempt by Britain to get over Tony Blair, his dominance over the British political landscape has remained unmatched. Blair made it clear to one and all that economic growth and social inclusion are not incompatible. One of the fastest growing economies in the world, Britain today is also a more confident and socially progressive society than when Blair assumed power.

The Blair government undertook some of the most politically difficult tasks as it embarked on the journey to restructure British public services, be they health or education. The journey is not yet complete and much remains to be done but Blair showed his successors that sometimes in politics difficult choices are also the ones that voters want their leaders to make.

The big issues in British politics today are all, in one way or another, the ones that have been defined by Blair. The restructuring of public services, the disparity between the rich and the poor, crime, environmental issues, multiculturalism, and, of course, liberal interventionism are the issues that animate British populace today and all of them have been shaped by Blair’s leadership.

Contemporary Britain
Blair led from the front, and even when the British public was not particularly supportive, he had the courage of his convictions to have his ideas out in the open to be debated and refined. He looms large in the way David Cameron has redefined what it means to be a Tory in contemporary Britain. Cameron has made no secret of his admiration for Tony Blair. He has accepted that he was as excited by the arrival of Blair to power as the Labour Party supporters. His attempt to shift the priorities of the Conservative Party to the centre has been straight out of Blair’s rule book.

Blair changed the face of British politics by rescuing his party from the extreme left. Cameron has tried to do the same by loosening the grip of extreme right on his party’s agenda. Blair’s lasting legacy is there for all to see in the form of his Conservative opponent, David Cameron, who has paid Blair his biggest compliment by moving his party to the centre. Tony Blair has made sure that elections in Britain from now on will be fought on the centre ground. The extremes on both the left and the right seemed to have been relegated to the margins.

But that was then. Today, the Labour Party has decided to turn left once again despite warnings that Corbyn’s election would make the party unelectable. Those around Corbyn – and the thousands enthused by his campaign – are energised by a politician they see as authentic, principled, different, and so appealing. Corbyn has his work cut out as senior members of the party establishment have made it clear that they would not work under him.

Though the Labour Party is trying to project a united front at the moment, cracks are already visible and many in the Labour parliamentary party are questioning whether the party members have made a catastrophic mistake by electing a person who has no experience of leading anything other than sundry protest demonstrations. The whole middle England will be lost to Labour under Corbyn, contend his detractors. But for the moment, Corbyn is one of the most powerful British politicians.

The Labour Party has made a fateful choice by junking ‘Blairism’ and electing Corbyn. The rise of regional and smaller parties is a testament to the uncharted waters into which British politics seems to have entered. It is not readily evident if Corbyn will be able to provide leadership at a time of this great tumult. But his staggering victory has made British politics much more interesting for sure!

(The writer is Professor of International Relations, King’s College London)