The Labour left is still celebrating – and Labour right still recriminating – over the clean sweep yesterday for the grassroots-left slate of nine candidates for Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) – and the SKWAWKBOX has covered the ramifications and lessons of the results.
But the total votes per slate – and for independents as a group – also tells a story. These were as follows:
Grassroots-left: 721,200
Progress/LF: 384,081
Independents: 183,443
Seen graphically, the relative differences in the votes stands out even more:
The left-slate performance at 56% of the total was down marginally compared to the 62% January elections of the three additional places that took the ‘CLP representative’ total of members up from six to nine, most likely because of Momentum’s poor decision to withdraw its support from slate member Peter Willsman – and a backlash among some Labour members against that decision.
However, it was still almost double that of the right-wing Progress/Labour First slate. When the left’s higher share of the vote among the independent candidates – again, not far short of double that of the right – is factored in, the left vote among Labour members actually went up, while the right had its worst performance of the Corbyn era.
The result shows increasing strength for the left and the fading of the right – but emphasises, as the SKWAWKBOX pointed out last night, the need for discipline and focus among Labour’s left-wing majority to ensure no aberrant wins are gifted to the right.
The continuing growth in left support was underlined by the less-publicised results in the elections for the National Policy Forum (NPF). Of the contested NPF places that were subject to member vote, over ninety percent – 38/42 – were won by left candidates.
As the right attempts to regroup from its disaster yesterday, various spins will be put on yesterday’s results to try to portray it as less catastrophic for the right than it was – but the underlying numbers show increasing support for Jeremy Corbyn and his vision.
As long as the left’s various personalities keep their egos subservient to the need and the prize and do not fall for the tactics of distraction, division and misinformation used shamelessly by their Establishment opponents, it will win.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
The Left has to be polite at all times. Saying boo to a goose will be exploited by the mainstream media for maximum effect. The bullying and dirty tactics from the Right will continue unchallenged by the mainstream media.. That’s the state of play.
Akehurst is fuming because their ploy to split of the centrists into a more palatable chunk under the name of independent back has fired, and he has vowed to unite them under his banner next time . If this is true we will see Black and Izzard become more vocal in the centrist way as time goes on
Wes Streeting was on the television yesterday and he seemed to be saying that winning candidate Willsman should stand down in favour of losing candidate Izzard!
How many votes did Akehurst get?
NOT ENOUGH 😀
The key point is we must be united and we can’t expect to win every battle exactly how we want. Compromises on the way will be inevitable but stay with the faith whatever
Maybe Progress should be renamed to Regress.
Can anyone explain how the total votes cast is 1,288,724???
ince we could expect some discouragement amongst the right wing and some loss in Labour membership disproportionately affecting the right it is a worry that the left vote has slipped from 62% to 58%. We need to maintain discipline and keep our messages focussed and unchanging to get through.