Monday 13 July 2015

Harriet Harman picks wrong time to get it wrong on Welfare Cuts



Today was another PR disaster for the Labour Party, after Harriet Harman needlessly vowed Labour would not oppose the Government's proposed limit on tax credits to the first two children.

The rhetoric on 'listening to the lessons of defeat' that we've heard from leadership candidates in the world's longest set of hustings is bad enough, but to then come out with this ludicrous right wing statement before the impact of the policy has been revealed, is just daft.

Labour needs to understand that outside of Westminster and party members, no one is paying attention to their leadership election. That's flippant, yes, but also true. So there's no need to alienate grassroots at a time they are needed more than ever, or to get the party into a tricky statement that will be kept on record and wheeled out if the Chancellor needs it in the future.

Harman doesn't have a record of doing this, it sounds like a bad briefing in the leadership vacuum.

Labour's new leader needs to find their own green logo and husky riding project when they are elected. Be prominent for eye catching and ultimately forgettable moments that leave them ideological room to manoeuvre at a later date - when the public are paying attention.

That's the opposite of what the Left are saying, and with good reason. But Labour can either have another few years of North London intellectual naval gazing, or it can become electable.

The danger is that it's already too late. Dan Jarvis and Chuka Umunna are starting to look like the smart ones for staying out of this race.

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