It has been a puzzle to me why Labour MPs should bring down their own government. Changing leader is another matter, although defenestration is far more common in the Conservative Party.
I have decided to use a fictitious composite 2024 intake Labour MP as a benchmark. Here is the first instalment.
Guy Bland didn’t really expect to become a Labour MP or at
least that was not his career strategy.
As the public affairs ‘guy’ for a medium-sized charity he thought that
doing well in an unwinnable constituency would give him brownie points with an incoming
Labour Government. He might then be
hired by a bigger charity or even a lobbying firm. He and his wife, Emma Bland, who worked in
religious affairs for the BBC, could then afford to start a family in London.
South Borsetshire constituency included the cathedral city
of Felpersham, the market town and county town of Borchester and a number of
villages such as Ambridge. The sitting
MP, Hazel Woolley, a hotelier by trade, had a majority of over 12,000. However, her hard line Brexiteer and generally
right wing stance was not particularly popular locally. Her comment that farmers should get out from
under the comfort blanket of EU subsidy payments did not go down too well..
Her main challenger appeared to be the Liberal Democrat
leader on the county council, Mark Grundy.
A keen sportsman in his day he had played for both Felpersham City
football team and the Borsetshire minor counties cricket team. His slogan was ‘Mark My Words: Borsetshire
born and bred.’
The Green candidate, Marjorie Antrobus, ran a local animal
rescue centre that looked after all sorts of animals, but was out of favour
with local cat ladies who accused her of being ‘Doggist’. (I have heard such a charge in real life at
a cats event).
Guy visited the constituency most weekends, although the
predominant ly left wing constituency party gave him little encouragement,
seeing him as a New Labour re-tread.
His wife was a communicant Anglican so each Sunday he accompanied her to
one of the local churches.
The campaign had just started when he became aware that he
might have a chance of doing better than coming a good second or third. He had emerged from a church in Borchester
after morning service when two elderly ladies strode towards him. He feared he was about to be upbraided, but
instead one of them said: ‘My sister and I have never voted Labour in our
lives, but we are sick to death of this Government and we can see that you and
your wife are decent Christian people.’
He had made no plans to buy a local base or establish a
constituency office, but the result confirmed his concerns:
Bland, Guy Joshua (Labour and Co-op) 19,327
Grundy, Mark (Liberal Democrat) 15,484
Woolley, Hazel (Conservative) 11,225
Antrobus, Marjorie
(Green) 2.026
Nelson, Horatio (True Patriot) 517
How have things worked
out for Guy?
After the count, Emma said to him ‘You will never get re-elected, however hard you work.’ Nevertheless, Guy was able to rent a spare flat from the cathedral and set up a constituency office. He and Emma had a child.
His first challenge was the
Labour plans on inheritance tax for farmers.
He decided the best way to proceed was to work with other rural Labour
MPs to get implementation delayed and modified.
Eventually the NFU realised that this was likely to have more effect
than parading shiny tractors and combines in London. Making concessions would be seen as another
sign of Government weakness and the Treasury was firmly behind the proposals,
but the arrival of yet another Defra secretary of state offered a glimmer of
hope.
His next challenge was to find some way of defending Keir
Starmer against charges of poor judgment.
He decided to keep a low profile, focusing on the summer fetes
circuit. However, his local party was
firmly behind the Andy Burnham stalking horse candidate for deputy leader and
this offered a new source of tension with local activists.
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