Labour has nothing to say to large chunks of Britain, may well never win power again and is in fact an irrelevance to the political direction of our country.
Yes, yes, we know all that already. But if you are a political nerd, as I am, you can’t knock a good leadership contest as it unfolds. And the current battle to become Leader of the Opposition is shaping up rather nicely.
Some had been writing it up as a procession, with former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer – he of the luxuriant hair and slippery ability simultaneously to project himself both as a diehard socialist and a centre-left moderniser, the first Kinnockite Corbynista – simply bound to win.
After all, a hitherto dominant hard left could not find a stand-out candidate and ended up fielding the underwhelming Rebecca Long-Bailey, despite the doubts of the left’s Godfather figures, such as John McDonnell.
But a poll of party members conducted by Survation for the influential Labour List website has rather scuppered this narrative.
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