McDonnell: Labour shouldn't be Blairite tribute band

Sir Keir Starmer must avoid leading Labour like a "Blairite tribute band", former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has warned.

He told BBC Two's Newsnight the party should become more radical following setbacks in recent elections.

Mr McDonnell, an ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, also argued there was "disillusionment" with Labour, "particularly among younger people".

But a Labour spokesperson said that the party under Sir Keir was looking to the future, "not rerunning old arguments".

Earlier this month, the party was heavily defeated in the Hartlepool by-election and the Tees Valley mayoral contest.

It also lost council seats, but won the West Yorkshire and West of England mayoral contests.

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Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott described the results as "ruinous" and warned last week that if Labour lost the forthcoming Batley and Spen by-election, it "must surely be curtains" for Sir Keir.

In his Newsnight interview, Mr McDonnell criticised former Prime Minister Tony Blair for responding to the recent electoral losses by calling for a "total deconstruction and reconstruction" of Labour.

"Some of the vitriol from Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair - it was almost like stepping back in time," he said. "Keir cannot look like a Blairite tribute band and he knows that as well."

Mr McDonnell said Labour could accommodate a range of views as long members agreed on a core set of values.

"There is room for everybody in this party as long as they believe in democratic socialism," he said. "And that is what we do."

"So what Keir has got to do now is make sure that he recognises that the paradigm has changed. There is now a need for a much more radical approach because the issues that we face are so serious."

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A strict adherence to democratic socialism would probably mean returning to the old Clause Four of the party's constitution, which called for the common ownership - effectively state ownership - of the means of production.

Mr Blair amended that clause in 1995, with the new version opening by describing Labour as a "democratic socialist" party but then removed any reference to "common ownership".

Labour says the party is a "modern, outward-looking party" under the leadership of Keir Starmer

The new clause also called for wealth to be in the hands of "the many not the few" - an allusion to a Percy Bysshe Shelley poem, which is probably the only phrase shared by Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn.

Vision for the future

Mr McDonnell denied that Sir Keir's authority had been shot to pieces after the electoral setbacks and a bungled shadow cabinet reshuffle.

But he warned: "At the moment we are not winning the elections on the scale we should. We are losing party membership and there is a feeling of disillusionment, particularly among younger people, that actually maybe we are not the future, when we've got to be."

The former shadow chancellor spoke carefully as he raised concerns about the direction of Labour under Sir Keir, highlighting divisions on the left.

Some are keen to see Sir Keir go in the hope that he might be replaced by a new leader in the spirit of Jeremy Corbyn.

But over the weekend Mr McDonnell talked of how he is following what he regards as the approach adopted by the late Tony Benn of pursuing policies not personalities.

The McDonnell wing is increasingly confident they can shape Labour's future policy direction if they avoid getting trapped into personal confrontations with the Labour leader.

Mr McDonnell told Newsnight he believes two broad forces will strengthen the left's policy agenda:

• They want to hold Starmer to two commitments he made in the 2020 Labour leadership contest: to act as a unifying force and to use the 2019 Labour manifesto as the basis for his programme. The "paradigm shift", which has seen strong state intervention in response to Covid, strengthens that argument, according to the McDonnell wing

• The success of the Democratic left in shaping President Joe Biden's policy agenda. Biden does not hail from that tradition but he has listened to their thinking.

Support for Starmer

A Labour spokesperson said: "Keir Starmer's Labour Party is a modern, outward-looking party, relentlessly focused on the challenges and opportunities for our country post-Covid.

"The pandemic has exposed a weakened economy, structural injustices, and public services starved of investment. It is Keir that has the ideas, purpose and drive to move our country forward.

"Under his leadership, the Labour Party is answering the questions of the 2020s and 2030s, not rerunning old arguments."

There was more support for Sir Keir on Newsnight from Baroness Morgan of Huyton, an adviser to Mr Blair in Downing Street, who said Sir Keir had made a good start by tackling allegations of anti-Semitism within Labour.

But she called on him to do more to define himself. "My message to Keir would be: be confident about being more open with people about what you are and who you are."

Baroness Morgan also called on Sir Keir to follow the example of the only two Labour leaders born in the 20th Century who won an election.

"The lesson from Harold Wilson and Tony Blair is when you own the future, you win," she said. "So when you can describe where you believe the country can go and how you as a government actively would make that a good future for the majority of people - that's when you win."