Why is the UK Establishment Warming to Labour?

Flicking through media reports of the Labour Party conference this week, it slowly dawned on me that the tone had changed, in some, if not all of the outlets that have been running an antisemitism smear campaign against the party all summer. The conference has been reported in mildly favourable terms, although it was largely harmonious for Labour, in contrast to the expected turmoil of the upcoming Tory party conference, I still thought this was strange.

The rancour has already begun at the Tory party conference which begins this weekend, with the first shots fired by Boris Johnson with his ‘better Brexit plan’ and grass roots activists calling the prime minister’s Chequers plan ‘a betrayal.’ There will no doubt be much plotting behind the scenes and critical fringe meetings, mostly about Brexit. So, this may be in part an explanation of the interest in Labour policies by some business leaders and the media.

In the liberal media, writers in the Guardian, who were completely opposed to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, like Polly Toynbee, are now singing the praises of Labour. Uber Blairite, Martin Kettle, who boasted of playing tennis with Blair, and has been very critical of Labour’s shift to the left, has also come around, it seems.  

Further to the political right, The Times had a leader piece which concludes, “In the battle for ideas between the two main parties, the quality is low but Mr Corbyn is right that he is winning.” The Telegraph leader warns that Corbyn’s speech ended on “a triumphalist note that the Tories urgently need to silence with a plan of their own.”

The Evening Standard, edited by former Tory chancellor, George Osborne, included an editorial this week which looks very much like a softening of its hostility to Corbyn’s Labour. 

Take this for example:

‘You may think, as we do, that John McDonnell’s plans to give workers 10 per cent of the shares of private companies and renationalise the water industry will only deter investment and damage productivity. But they are concrete policies that deserve serious scrutiny. For all the talk from Downing Street about addressing the “burning injustices”, can anyone remember a single policy to address them — and does anyone think this will be the main topic of conversation when the Tories meet next week in Birmingham? No. It’s dangerous for a government when it’s the opposition that starts setting the policy agenda.’ 

In another editorial this week the paper suggests ‘Emily Thornberry could be the next female PM,’ although it reserves distain for Corbyn personally, more broadly Labour is attracting interest.

What is going on then? Yes, the Tory government’s Brexit handling has been an embarrassment, but I detect something deeper is happening with establishment thinking. This thought has been kicking around in my head all week, then yesterday I saw Adam Ramsay’s video from Labour’s conference on Open Democracy’s Facebook page, take a look if you haven’t already, it is well worth a viewing.

Ramsay perhaps has the answer to this strange turn of events. He thinks that the ‘British establishment, British state, British capital’ is trying to ‘re-inflate the ancient regime’ because it has lost legitimacy with a large swath of the public, and allowing a Labour government to do a few nice things, like raise taxes on the wealthy, introduce some green policies and renationalise the railways and utilities, will repair the damage. Then another financial crisis will occur, and the Tories will be back in, and it will be back to business as usual.

This was what happened with new Labour, although it didn’t attempt anything as radical as today’s Labour is promising, but did smooth off a few of the rough edges of neo-liberalism. There is no doubt that a Labour government would be better than the a Tory one, even Blair’s Labour was a bit, but will this momentum that has built up be co-opted by the establishment and so lose its way? I think that there a very good chance of that happening.

As Ramsay says, this is not inevitable though, and some in Labour are thinking these thoughts, but it is certainly a danger.

Brexit was a warning to the British establishment, that many people are not happy with their lot, although the EU is not central to this, the referendum gave the opportunity to voters to voice their dissatisfaction more generally. Some in the Tory party are trying to use this to push a small state with low regulation if any, as the answer. But this would make matters worse, not better. Some in the establishment recognise this.