Labour leadership race: Will unity be restored?

Today is the last date to vote for the Labour party leader which will be either the present leader Jeremy Corbyn or challenger Owen Smith.

The odds -1 /150 for Corbyn to win mean that if you put £150 on JC you’ll win £1 is an indicator that the bookies see this as foregone conclusion. If only I had a spare 150 million pounds I could win another million.

The real question after what has been a bitter campaign which has virtually torn the party apart, is can it unite to be a credible opposition party?

At the heart of the split is on one side the parliamentary members - the MPs - and on the other side the members which number an unprecedented 600k plus. A significant number of Labour MP’s simply think Corbyn is unelectable, whilst a rejuvenated membership is inspired by what they see as a politician of integrity.

But without reconciling the two factions the Labour party will become an irrelevance in British politics, metaphorically eating itself to death. Whilst decorators of the Labour party might reveal in this Labour party self-destruction, it seems to me the real loser is democracy.

Our first past the post system of democracy depends upon an opposition party to hold the Government of the day to account. And whilst the Labour party engages in this very public Hari Kari the Conservative Government cannot effectively be held to account.

In sharp contrast after the EU referendum in which Tory grandees viciously attacked each the party machinery quickly and brutally restored order by selecting a new leader that would not seem out of place in the US drama - House of Cards.

With so many big political issues looming not least how we negotiate an EU political settlement that doesn’t leave the UK economically vulnerable and politically isolated, we’ll need a robust parliamentary democracy.

So come on Labour, get your act together!

Simon Woolley