To paraphrase Bill Clinton aide James Carville, "it's electability, stupid". As Bernie Sanders has discovered in the US Democratic primaries, and Rebecca Long-Bailey is discovering in British Labour's equivalent, fine words butter no parsnips. It seems it is no longer the programme that matters, no matter how close to the hearts of members, but whether the candidate is perceived capable of beating Donald Trump/Boris Johnson.
The pragmatic shift has been some time coming and is by no means obvious or a given. There’s a big trust issue involved in bitterly divided parties. Idealistic members suspect, with some justice, that the catchcry of “electability” is simply a more palatable way of selling “ditch the programme”, “ditch left-wing ideas”.
But, it would appear one term of Trump or Johnson is enough to make anyone swallow their principles. The latest poll of Labour members suggests that Sir Keir Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions who handled the Brexit brief with considerable dexterity, will win the leadership comfortably on the first count. The election, which continues until April 2nd , would see him beat Long-Bailey, the Jeremy Corbyn heir apparent and standard bearer of the left, and Lisa Nandy, by 53 to 31 to 16 per cent respectively.
The poll shows continuing majority support and affection for Corbyn and his policies but, significantly, the majority of those polled would not vote for him again. Fifty-eight per cent said they believed Starmer could lead Labour to election victory next time round, while only a quarter thought either of the other two could do so.
Starmer, who has pitched himself as the “unity” candidate, has been careful to endorse the party’s left-wing policies. He has described the nationalisation of water, mail, and rail, as “baseline indicators” of where he wants to go. But winning an internal election is the easy bit. Voters who gave Labour an historic drubbing in the general election remain sceptical of the credibility of a party deeply divided between rank and file and parliament. Electability is not just an issue for the leader.