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Whenever the Labour left has the temerity to push for the changes it wants to see within the party, it unleashes what Gregory Elliott once derisively called the “Burkean Furies.” Such is the nervousness surrounding the impending reselection of Labour MPs, it only takes a single Labour member to send an (albeit ill-considered) email to their CLP chair for the indignant wrath of the deputy leader to be splashed across the national press. The Labour left was unsuccessful in its efforts to secure full mandatory reselection, or “open selection,” at last year’s party conference — but it did manage to significantly lower the threshold of the trigger ballot system. Under the reformed system, it only takes one-third of branch parties to vote in favor of reselection for a process to take place. Some reports suggest (though their reliability is difficult to gauge) that as many as seventy MPs, including some of those on the Left, could find themselves vulnerable under this new setup. In the weeks and months ahead, Labour left activists should expect to face a fierce and bitter rearguard action from the party’s right wing, and its associates in the press, against their efforts to reshape the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). But we cannot allow ourselves to be browbeaten into docility: unless there are substantial changes to the political composition of the PLP at the next general election, any left-led Labour government will be severely hamstrung from the outset, and will stand only a remote chance of successfully carrying out its program. The forthcoming round of trigger ballots therefore represents a significant milestone in the long struggle to renew the Labour Party.

Transforming the PLP Nearly four years into his tenure as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn’s support within the PLP remains minimal. There have been numerous attempts to quantify exactly how large this group is. Before the 2017 general election, the infamous “core group” list suggested as few as seventeen MPs. In an essay published in New Left Review last year, Robin Blackburn somewhat optimistically claimed that the number was as high as forty. The Shadow Cabinet has thirty-one MPs — but includes Tom Watson while excluding reliable socialists like Dennis Skinner. Regardless, none of these totals are impressive in the context of 247 Labour MPs currently in the House of Commons. Despite the recent Change UK/Independent split, the PLP’s right wing remains a solid, embittered, and highly disruptive faction, sufficiently numerous to scupper significant policies of a Corbyn-led government — or maybe even bring down that government altogether. Anyone serious about ensuring the success of a socialist-led Labour government must therefore recognize the necessity of transforming the political composition of the party’s parliamentary ranks. Of course, the post-reselection PLP will remain, like the party as a whole, a broad and somewhat eclectic alliance. But the socialist pole within the PLP needs to be drastically strengthened. Leaving any left-Labour government at the mercy of MPs who have spent nearly four years straining every sinew to undermine their own party’s leadership would be to invite disaster. The next intake of Labour MPs is likely to be considerably more left-wing than the last one. This is certainly to be welcomed, but merely selecting nominal Corbyn supporters as candidates is insufficient. A Labour government led from the Left will need the backing of a substantially expanded bloc of socialists in Parliament. These should be MPs committed to the implementation of a left-wing program and, in the longer term, working towards a fundamental redistribution of power and wealth in our society. The forthcoming reselection processes offer grassroots Labour activists across the country an opportunity to interrogate these commitments for themselves, and should open the door to much-needed re-invigoration of the party’s base. But the transformation of the Parliamentary Labour Party needs to go well beyond this. Here, the role of an active and assertive party democracy is essential. The rarefied position of the PLP in the political hierarchy, isolated from and elevated above the party’s rank and file, leaves even its more radical members open to the concerted conservative pressures that come with life in Parliament. Countless numbers of socialists have entered the House of Commons only to succumb to what Ralph Miliband called “the sedate parliamentary minuet.” It takes real political fortitude to resist it. Continuous efforts must be made to minimize the distance between the PLP and the grassroots of the labor movement. The Labour left needs to reconsider what it expects from socialist MPs — not just with regard to their standards of personal and political probity, but also their responsibilities as socialist educators, agitators, and standard-bearers.