The Labour party’s decision to threaten to expel one of its leading thinkers after 44 years of membership is a political miscalculation. Neal Lawson is the director of the progressive thinktank Compass, who previously worked as an adviser to Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson. Mr Lawson is no leftwinger, some of whom are being purged by Sir Keir Starmer on ideological grounds. Instead he championed the liberal tradition of political and democratic pluralism and was a prime mover in making sure such ideas gained currency in the party. For his efforts, Mr Lawson is being shown the door – and there are determined efforts to bundle him through it.
The charges of disloyalty against Mr Lawson should be dropped. They, unfortunately, illuminate a wider strategy to march Labour ever rightwards under the cover of big poll leads. Mr Lawson’s argument for a progressive alliance – either a formal pact or a tacit one – to save the country from Conservative domination, is a good one. But Sir Keir wants the progressive tent to be big enough only for Labour and the Lib Dems, who face off against the Tories – not each other – in almost every English seat. To defeat a common enemy doesn’t need an explicit pact between these parties when their voters lending support will do. Crucially, Sir Keir seemingly wants to win through bland policies, and paint his opponents on the left – the Greens and the SNP – as equally radical and as bad as those to his right.
