A Labour of Love?

After the election trouncing, Corbyn is on his way out. But is there a way for Labour to come to its senses and become moderate again?

Of course there is. We’re going to have a leadership election with Corbyn retiring by March at the latest, and so the election result makes it the best way to get to a different leader. It’s a question of who’s the successor. If moderates can’t win the internal debate now, we don’t deserve to win.

Corbyn’s hard-left faction has taken over the Labour Party institutions since 2015. Doesn’t that make it unlikely that you can sideline him?

There are certainly tough hurdles for moderates, and the nomination process guarantees that there will be hard-left candidates on the ballot, but there is a path ahead.

Firstly, having the support of 10 percent of MPs gets you on the ballot paper, and since only about 37 out of 203 MPs are Corbynites, that gives moderates a chance. The other route is getting the support of either 5 percent of constituencies, which have become Corbynite, or the support of one of five big trade unions.

Of Labour members, we are trying to get people to join the party now to change its direction. I know that there are people from the Jewish community who left since 2015 who are now rejoining to have a say in the leadership election.