New Labour leader will take control of a tired and fractious party
The victor will lead a fractious Labour party that looks like it needs a period of social distancing from itself, says Sam Coates.
Saturday 4 April 2020 13:31, UK
It has been a contest from another era - a competition to answer yesterday's question.
Dominated by issues now fading from the forefront of people's mind: Was Labour right to promise a second referendum? Was Jeremy Corbyn too left wing? How do you deal with antisemitism?
Through no fault of their own, the final three contestants - Sir Keir Starmer, Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey - spent most of a four month campaign arguing over a future that will bear no relation to the one we now face.
When this contest began in December, state handouts for millions and unparalleled government intervention was a Corbynite dream.
Now it is a Tory reality - leaving no certainty over how an official opposition should respond.
And the victor must lead a fractious, tired Labour party that looked, frankly, like it needed a period of social distancing from itself, struggling to answer the big questions created from the worst defeat since 1935.
But maybe - after that December election drubbing - leaving behind much of the recent past is for the best?
The story of the last four months has been how Jeremy Corbyn's fearsome political network - Momentum, key unions and the enlarged Labour membership - really struggled to dominate the conversation.
Yet listen to some on the Corbynite left, and you would think they'd achieved their goals.
Speaking to Sky News, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: "The centre of gravity overall has shifted. In some ways I think the left have won the argument."
Several fans of Mr Corbyn who transferred allegiance to Ms Long-Bailey rejected that change was needed at all when speaking to Sky News.
But in reality, the Corbynite left splintered in this election, with unions splitting off from Mr Corbyn's preferred successor, and many tens of thousands of people joining Labour in the weeks after the election to vote to change the party's direction.
Many unions - including loyal supporters of Mr Corbyn through tough times - disagreed that opposition is a price worth paying for purity any longer.
Tim Roache, the general secretary of the GMB union and one of the most powerful figures in the movement, told Sky News: "(This moment is) is a fork in the road.
"If people think more of the same is going to cut it, frankly it won't. I would say to those people - what are you interested in? Are you interested in power? Because that's all my members are interested in. They don't want another five years, let alone another 10 years of Conservative rule."
Both the polling and Labour MPs are united that the "fork in the road" was the clarity of the choice between Mr Starmer and Ms Nandy on one side - representing a change of direction - and Corbynite favourite Ms Long-Bailey on the other representing continuity.
Lord McNicol, general secretary of the Labour party, told me that the choice would determine "the future of the Labour party".
The election poses fundamental questions for Labour's future. But in the campaign Ms Long-Bailey's prescription was not so much about challenging substance, as presentation.
She told me the election defeat can be put down to "a matter of communication about our policies.
"I think we just didn't have a campaign that a) had a message or b) picked out certain policies that were popular and packaged them in a way that would be articulated properly.
"We were also faced with a backdrop of other issues like Brexit, antisemitisim, such as division within the party…
"That exacerbated the problems we were facing and not having that dynamic campaign if I'm honest."
Labour party chairman Ian Lavery, a supporter after deciding not to run himself, was more blunt. He said personality trumped promises, hinting that factionalism was the driving force in this contest.
He told Sky News: "Keir might be saying things similar to Becky and Lisa. And Lisa might be saying similar things. But it's who you can really trust to carry forward the policies.
"I'll be perfectly honest - I've got more trust in Rebecca Long-Bailey than Keir to carry on continuing with policies from the last five years."
The contest for the deputy leadership was more bitter and divided than the one for the top job, with potentially longer term consequences for the new leader.
Richard Burgon, the leading Corbynite of the next generation, preached passionately at socialist rallies, whipping up dormant anger about the 2016 coup against Mr Corbyn.
He told one rally: "I'll never forget the way you stood by Jeremy, by our socialist politics, our anti-austerity internationalist politics.
"In the same way I'll never forget those who let us down. Those who betrayed us. Those who handed the victory to the Tories on the plate in 2017."
He was not shy of naming names of those who backed the coup by resigning from the shadow cabinet after the 2016 referendum, telling me: "(I) don't think Keir should have resigned at time of an attempted coup.
"Lisa shouldn't have either or chaired Owen Smith's campaign. Ultimately they let the members down. They turned what was a crisis for Conservatives into crisis for the Labour Party.
"As far as I'm concerned that was absolutely awful. An insult to Labour members but also to Labour voters who rely upon as remaining united."
Even Mr McDonnell engaged in the blame game, both at the rally and to me afterwards.
"I value people with consistency. Rebecca Long-Bailey has advocated for a policy programme we've supported.
"I think she's articulate and confident. Both Keir and Lisa were part of the coup against Jeremy - so I do take that into account, but it's not an overriding factor."
An overriding question of this leadership contest, in normal times, would have been whether Sir Keir or Ms Nandy needed to endorse quite so much of Mr Corbyn's manifestos which lost two elections.
Given the assumption that Momentum and key Corbyn supporting unions would do a better job in this contest, it might have been a reasonable assumption then.
But is it now, or has coronavirus wiped out more of Jeremy Corbyn's legacy, for good or ill?
Andrew Fisher, Mr Corbyn's former head of policy, disagrees his legacy will fade, telling me that whoever won, his old boss was victor.
"I think if it's a referendum on Jeremy Corbyn he's already won because if you look at the policy consensus - all the candidates are saying they're in favour of public ownership of rail and core utilities.
"All of them will say they're in favour of scrapping tuition fees. All of them are anti-austerity now.
"Those positions weren't party positions when Jeremy took over as leader."
British politics, and the landscape of the nation, has changed beyond recognition once more since he said that just a month ago.
The new leader, inheriting a party further to the left than at any point since Michael Foot, is now having to navigate how closely to work with Boris Johnson - working out what an opposition actually does in a national emergency.
It is a course into the unknown.