Jeremy Corbyn, Labour voters like me want a champion for British workers – not a sandal-wearing socialist with the charisma of an ageing Labrador

The real disaffected in this country are the working people of the lower middle classes, the people who have seen their pensions shrink, whose children are still living at home in their thirties because they can’t afford a home. They don't want someone droning on about political prisoners in the third world

Janet Street-Porter
Saturday 23 July 2016 17:00 BST
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The blood running through my veins is 100 per cent Labour. My dad was a committed socialist, who read the Co-operative newspaper on Sundays and the Mirror during the week: an apprentice who went to night school for years to get qualifications. My mother came from poor Welsh stock, also forced to leave school at 14 to support the family, faking her qualifications to eventually get a lowly clerical job in the civil service. My parents never took a penny in welfare and were proud to be called working class.

That is my default setting – I’m genetically programmed to vote for a state that helps the poorest, that believes in the common good, that wants to help people who came from the same background as me get on in life. I don’t feel comfortable with people who inherit wealth without work, who feel superior because their parents paid for an expensive education. Like Theresa May, I am a grammar school girl, but after that our ideologies part ways.

Over the last few weeks, one friend after another has said exactly the same thing to me: ”What on earth are we going to do about Labour?” My spiritual home has elected a placard-waver as leader, a man of principles whose eco-sandals are pursuing a utopian dream we have no hope of achieving.

Labour MPs aren’t alone in finding their current leader unacceptable. Out there in the real world, not the world of student demos, “safe spaces” and agitprop, long-standing Labour voters want a party led by someone who will be a fighter for the NHS, who will take on tax-avoiders and who will bang heads together until affordable homes are built and commuters get the train service they are entitled to.

As a student and into my twenties, Labour seemed dreary and I craved radical change, marching against nuclear weapons and the war in Vietnam. This was a natural reaction against the traditional socialism of mum and dad which wasn’t revolutionary enough for my generation.

That same zeal is driving thousands of young people to rally behind Corbyn and sign up for Labour and a man who is a protestor, just like them. These kids want to end poverty and save the planet. Good luck to them, but they are not going to be able to translate their aspirations into political power. Their placards won’t become policies, they’ll remain pipedreams.

Real politics involves years of painstaking negotiations (Northern Ireland is a case in point), bridge-building and commitment. The real disaffected in this country are the working people of the lower middle classes, the people who have seen their pensions shrink, whose children are still living at home in their thirties because they can’t afford a home. The workers on part time or zero hours contracts with no job security.

Harman on Corbyn

These people want a charismatic fighter at the front, not someone droning on about political prisoners in the third world or banning Trident. Someone who combines pragmatism with a winning streak, a manager who can gather up all the people in the team and get them playing to win. That person isn’t Jeremy Corbyn, who shuffles into vision with all the fighting spirit of an ageing Labrador.

Labour fought for all-women shortlists and they can’t even manage to put a woman on the ballot paper for leader. Tony Blair might have gotten involved in a war we didn’t want, but he was a brilliant leader with 100 per cent charisma, evident from the moment he entered any room. Now, Corbyn will be re-elected leader and unless the MPs who oppose him grit their teeth and form a breakaway party, they can forget winning any election.

What we need is Labour for Real People, a party not ruled by trade unions or former political lobbyists. Owen Smith – a man no one had heard of until the other week – is about as charismatic as my face flannel. What’s happened to all those Labour women of yesteryear? Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman, Tessa Jowell and Gloria de Piero? Brave Angela Eagle dared to stick her head above the parapet and ended up with a death threat and a brick through her constituency office window.

With brilliantly tactless timing, Labour peer Oona King has announced this week that she is fleeing the country, taking a highly paid job at YouTube in California. She said that the move had been “made easier” by Corbyn being leader of the Labour party, because she didn’t expect him to be able to win an election any time soon. So much for the politics of conviction.

Corbyn can pose with a line-up of female supporters but he doesn’t fool me: this man has no time for the issues that working women care about. Unless Labour MPs galvanise themselves into action and form a new party, there’s every chance Nigel Farage will re-emerge to claim the votes of millions of disaffected ordinary Labour voters. New Labour must be reborn as Real Labour.

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