Labour stares into the abyss

The Labour party is in a state of emergency.

Today, Tony Blair stood up to fight for the party he clearly loves. He warned that Labour faces “annihilation” if it elects Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

He contrasted Corbyn as a minnow compared to ex-cabinet ministers Michael Foot and Tony Benn. And the defeat would be far worse in 2020 than 1983. Much worse.

Today, Yvette Cooper stood up to be counted. After a cautious, dull and insipid campaign, she took a gamble and confronted the problem head on.

She called out Corbyn’s faux radicalism, deconstructed his “people’s QE” madness for the sham that it is and positioned herself as the only possible alternative to madness.

Last week, Alistair Campbell stood up to be counted to rescue the party he has supported his entire life by outfling the chaos Corbyn would create.

John McTernan has been fighting almost single-handedly on the airwaves and online to stop the impending disaster.

These interventions are all massively welcome even at this late stage. They could make a difference, they may not but they have to at least try.

We need Gordon Brown fighting for the party he loves. Even Ed Miliband need to warn that Corbyn is not the answer to the questions his defeat posed. 

This is not any ordinary leadership election and this is no time for Labour to keep calm and carry on. This is an emergency. A life or death moment.

Here’s what happens if Corbyn wins.

The two fundamentals of winning elections are leadership and economic credibility. Corbyn is the worst leader on offer with the worst economic credibility.

If he leads us into the next election then we will lose and the Tories will be in Government. That’s 15 years of Tories minimum.

We won’t just lose badly like Ed Miliband did, we will be wiped out. We will lose dozens more seats. We will definitely slip below 200, possibly below 150 and maybe even under 100.

These seats will be snapped up by Ukip, the Lib Dems, Tories and maybe others while Labour will be a faded force that may never recover. The party could be reduced to a parliamentary rump.

This isn’t just a numbers game. This means the Tories will rule Britain for years and years shrinking the state drastically over the next decade.

Tax credits will be distant memory. The young will have no access to state benefits. Poor students will see their support pulled away. The Human Rights Act will be gone. Fox hunting will be back. Corporation tax will fall and fall. Millionaires will get tax cut after tax cut. Banks will be de-regulated.

The Tories will change the zeitgeist and the heart of the nation by shifting the centre towards their thinking with Budget after Budget, Bill after Bill, speech after speech, key appointment after key appointment.

That hits all the people the Labour party was set up to help: the poorest and most vulnerable in society. We can not do enough to help them as a protest party with no popular support.

But it’s not just blocking the Tories. Apparently it is negative to point out just what a disaster Corbyn would be and the Labour centrists and moderates need to set out a positive future. We do.

The vision is a Labour Government that can win popular support for radical change. A Government that can scrap the bedroom tax, bolster tax credits and rebuild the welfare state for those who desperately need it.

A Government that won’t describe migrants as a “swarm”, that will protect human rights for all and animal rights.

An internationalist Government at the heart of Europe with alliances across the planet that helps solve global problems rather than retreating from them.

A Government that won’t become a tax haven with a race to the bottom on corporation tax and bows before banker demands to de-regulate. A Government that taxes property properly and builds house for those who need it.

A Government that can protect and improve public services that serve the common good and are only safe under Labour.

A Government that can reform the House of Lords properly, devolve power and who actually cares about keeping the UK together.

And much more besides. You won’t agree with it all and it won’t be perfect. But it is better than the alternative of Tory rule and it means progress.

Corbyn can not deliver a single one of those things because he has no popular support in the country. He can not win Nuneaton. He will lose seats and make all these ideas less likely.

He will lead Labour into a dead end that leads only to Tory rule for a minimum of 15 years. His policies are almost irrelevant as not a single one will ever be put into practice.

There is one month to go and it has to be all hands on deck to save the party. This is an emergency.