Labour party may need to split to survive, says key ex-Blair adviser

The demise of New Labour and election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader will kill the Labour party unless a new “project” is born to champion modern progressive policies on the centre ground, a leading figure in Tony Blair’s former administration says.

In a devastating critique of the party’s recent failures, from New Labour’s second term onwards, Blair’s former speechwriter and chief strategist Peter Hyman suggests its plight is now so desperate that it may even be necessary to form a new party with others, including the Lib Dems, to fill the “gaping hole in the centre and centre-left of British politics…

Hyman says the project needs to champion true progressive values, emphasising social mobility, increased opportunity for all through education reform, higher productivity, a leaner more agile state, reform of the welfare state based on the contributory principle and a recommitment to the green agenda.” [The Observer]

You can read Peter Hyman’s article in full here, which includes this:

There is a perfectly valid and viable political party that is left wing, union based, led by someone such as Corbyn and appealing to a mix of metropolitan elites, students and some trade unionists. With a charismatic leader and clever politics (two things currently missing), and relying on tribal Labour loyalty that remains in parts of the country, this approach could gain the support of 15% to 20% of the public and possibly, with the infrastructure, money and backing of the big trade unions, up to 25% to 28% of the vote. Let’s not forget Michael Foot’s Labour party got 27.6% of the vote in 1983. But this is a party that will never be in power. There is some support in the country for pacifism, republicanism and anti-capitalism but there isn’t enough to win an election. Labour’s role has become, like that of Ukip, to put certain issues higher up the agenda. Labour is currently, and for the foreseeable future, the Ukip of the left.