Opinion
At Labour conference, I saw the fall of a once great party
The JC's political editor says you had to be in Brighton this week to really see what its new members have done to Labour
September 25, 2019 17:10
2 min read
The JC's political editor says you had to be in Brighton this week to really see what its new members have done to Labour
September 25, 2019 17:10You really have to be at Labour's conference to understand what has happened to a once great political party.
As a result of the changes instigated - most shamefully by Momentum's founder Jon Lansman - alongside his ally Jeremy Corbyn, the annual gathering has been taken over by the members.
The new members, that is.
The ones who joined Labour post-2015 after Mr Corbyn became leader and who adore his every word.
Where once Labour conference was attended by MPs, aspirational working-class types, Jews, Christians, business people, academics and others, today it has been taken over by only one kind.
Little-Englanders, I would call them. Not working-class, and convinced they are owed a living.
Convinced that Jeremy Corbyn's populist mantra which blames all the world's problems on the wealthy one per cent, and on Israel and on Zionism, will rescue them from mediocrity once he becomes PM.
The members even have their own uniform - scruffy, with Palestinian Solidarity Campaign lanyards around their necks, and badges expressing solidarity with Venezuela on the T-shirts.
At breakfast one morning, on the same day delegates voted through a motion condemning Israel and calling for boycotts, I overheard a conversation in my hotel that spoke volumes about the members Labour take-over.
In conversation with a man from Birmingham Selly Oak Labour Party, a female activist spoke of "media antisemitism smears."
She then concluded:"What the discussion is really about is the one per cent - because they've got all the power haven't they?"
The members are not all monsters, of course. But most of them are antisemitic.
The don't hate Jews, they tell you in conversations, they just hate Israel.
They are not antisemitic - they don't hate the Jews, just the Tories and the rich.
But even in the dark gloomy place that was this year's Labour Conference there were still, a few, chinks of light.
At a drinks event organised by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, at the Holiday Inn hotel out of sight of most members, I bumped into the last remaining Jewish activists still holding out hope that they can save Labour.
They stood alongside activists from the Progress organisation, the Labour Students group that Mr Lansman recently booted out of the party, alongside trade union officials from GMB and UNSION.
The Jewish Labour Movement were there too, as was Dame Louise Ellman, one of the few non-Corbynista MPs to even bother with Labour Conference anymore.
As was Luke Akehurst, a non-Jew, who has stood up and fought against the scourge of antisemitism that has infested his beloved party.
Two of the most impressive figures amongst this group - the JLM's Ella Rose and Miriam Mirwitch, both Jewish women - had earlier stood up on the conference floor to openly challenge the one-sided anti-Zionism on show.
"We are going nowhere and we are carrying on this fight," I was later told by one Jewish Labour female, with genuine determination in the hotel bar.
There are some in the community who would label such people fools, collaborators even.
But these Jewish women are strong and tough and intelligent.
When the time comes around, and it may well do very soon, we should allow them to make the decision on whether to leave or stay in the Labour Party.
