March 8, 2017  

A Labour Party “Remain” Strategy for Wandsworth, 2018

It is clear that on the major issue of the day, the Labour Party’s position is, at least for now, an irrelevance. The country is set on a very difficult Brexit journey, which Jeremy Corbyn is not going to challenge in any serious manner. Regardless of his qualities or otherwise, he appears to take the view that There Is No Alternative; we are back to our old friend from the 80s, TINA!

If Mrs. May were to make the mistake of calling a General Election there could be no real external opposition to her except from out and out remainers in her own party. UKIP would not be the threat to Labour but the LibDems would be – almost regardless of the qualities or otherwise of their leader.

The 48% of us, who voted Remain would not be represented by anyone else. Is there, therefore, any serious argument against the Labour Party taking a strong and passionate “Pro-EU” position?

In a sense, whether it delivers an overall Labour majority in a General Election or not, it is the only path away from annihilation back to electoral respectability. My old friend, Mayor Khan, is sharp enough to see that for him in London it is advantageous to be as pro-European as he can be.

Likewise every Labour campaign in the 2018 London Borough Elections should be fought on a Pro-EU platform. Not only is London a “Remain” city, but it is also home to enough voting EU nationals in most boroughs to justify local platforms with a large element of “foreign policy”.

This tactic might be very uncomfortable for some, few Labour Brexiteers, but no more difficult than the current position is for the much larger Pro-EU majority.

I call on Wandsworth Labour to make an essentially Pro-EU platform the corner-stone of our local campaign for 2018, and I hope many other London Labour Parties follow suit. It would also, of course and crucially, have the benefit of putting the Brexit supporting Conservative party in the position of fighting an election in a Borough, with a 70+% majority Remain population. Who knows? But it is easy to imagine that in 12 months time it could be the Tories rather than Labour facing a major political dilemma.

About Tony Belton

Labour Councillor for Latchmere Ward 1972-2022, now Battersea Park Ward, London Borough of Wandsworth Ever hopeful Spurs supporter; Lane visit to the Lane, 1948 Olympics. Why don't they simply call the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Lane? Once understood IT but no longer

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