The Parliamentary Labour Party cannot easily be forgiven for provoking a leadership crisis at a moment when the country is convulsed by political, social, economic and international forces beyond its previous experience and traditions. The PLP has done so and thus put itself in conflict with the majority of the members of the Labour party in the country as well as the Trade Unions. Angela Eagle, its apparent candidate to succeed Jeremy Corbyn, whom almost all of them voted against and whom they have been plotting to rid themselves, is a feisty Commons performer. She is said to be left of that desert of political ideas and initiative known as the centre.
This is all because they say Corbyn is not a leader. Well he certainly lacks the first qualification of modern British politics; he is not a liar. And it is precisely because he is not one of these ghastly ‘leaders’ who have collectively led their country to the brink of chaos and certainly into the most unequal economic settlement since WWII, that he has unprecedented public support. The PLP should ask itself if it is actually worth leading and if it can say yes to that (another porky?) it must back Angela to win. But to do that she will need to show the membership than she can cap the achievements of the leader she will be trying to depose.
Though rubbished by the PLP, it is quite an impressive list. Corbyn has brought many tens of thousands of new members into the party making Labour bigger than all the other parties in the country put together. He has won both by-elections since he became leader with much larger Labour votes than expected. He did very much better than expected (and wished for by the PLP) in the spring local elections, with Labour winning both mayoral and local elections said to be at risk, with an increase in the Labour vote across the country approaching 4% over May 2015, while the Tory vote fell by 3%. He has brought people back to Labour who long ago walked away and has shifted the political conversation from the place where Labour cannot win to the place where victory waits for the asking.
If Angela can do better than that, she could be worth a try. But if the party is torn apart in the process or if the renewed membership walks away, it will be the last thing the PLP ever does. There is a lot of bad judgement in the fetid Westminster air at the moment, so for once second thoughts might prove the difference between survival and disaster. Winning is for later. May 2020 is the date. The Parliament Act of 2011 rules out anything earlier.