Choosing The Labour Leader

The change in the method of selecting the Labour Party leader, from an elite parliamentary ballot to a mass participatory Electoral College, which occurred in 1981 was ideologically motivated. However, the strategy of the Left to enhance the accountability of the incumbent party leader to the wider Labour movement, and the Left's chances of securing an ideological succession in the party leadership failed. Drawing together debates on the method of party leadership selection and the ideological positioning of leadership candidates, this book examines each leadership election since 1963 as a means of charting the decline of the left within the Labour Party. Given the bypassing of the Electoral College to appoint Gordon Brown in 2007, and the debates surrounding his authority and legitimacy as Labour Party leader thereafter, this book offers a comprehensive and timely examination of Labour Party leadership elections from Wilson to Brown which will be invaluable for scholars of British Politics and the history of the Labour Party.

This rigorous, seminal study of leadership selection in British Politics focuses on the Conservatives and Labour Party to explore the skills needed to be an effective leader over the course of the 20th and into the 21st Century.

How political parties choose their leaders, and why they choose the leaders they do, are questions of fundamental importance in contemporary parliamentary democracies. This book examines political leadership selection in the two dominant parties in recent British political history, exploring the criteria and skills needed by political leaders to be chosen by their parties. While the Conservative Party’s strong record in office owes much to ability to project an image of leadership competence and governing credibility, the Labour Party has struggled with issues of economic management, leadership ability, and ideological splits between various interpretations of socialism. The authors argue that the Conservatives tend towards a unifying figure who can lead the Party to victory, whereas the Labour Party typically choose a leader to unite the party behind ideological renewal. Exploring the contemporary political choices of leaders like Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, this book offers a timely insight into the leadership processes of Britain’s major political players.

What makes a man put politics and ambition before family? Ed Miliband is perhaps the least understood political leader of modern times. Brought up against A backdrop of tragedy, with a prominent Marxist thinker for a father, Ed followed his brother to the same college at Oxford, into Parliament and into the Cabinet before, at the eleventh hour, snatching away David's dream of the leadership. This new and fully updated edition follows Ed through the highs of leading the charge against Rupert Murdoch and News International to the lows of plummeting poll ratings, poor press and that infamous 'Blackbusters' tweet. Yet in the wake of Osborne's 'omnishambles' Budget and Labour's impressive gains in May 2012's local elections, political commentators have started to ask, with increasing volume, if we could indeed see Prime Minister Ed Miliband. As the 2015 general election approaches, Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre ask the important questions. Is Ed up to the job? Can he be trusted on the economy? And will he manage to bury the hatchet with David and bring his brother back to the Labour frontbench?

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats each allow their members to participate in the selection of the party leader. It also examines the consequences of all-member ballots in leadership elections. It looks at how parties remove leaders, showing that each of the major British parties sought to make it harder to evict incumbents.

What similarities exist between the reasons for Labour losing office in 2010 and those behind why previous Labour governments were defeated? This edited volume provides a detailed historical appraisal which considers the importance of themes such as economic performance; political leadership and the condition of the Conservatives in opposition.

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats each allow their members to participate in the selection of the party leader. It also examines the consequences of all-member ballots in leadership elections. It looks at how parties remove leaders, showing that each of the major British parties sought to make it harder to evict incumbents.

How Jeremy Corbyn, the radical left candidate for the Labour leadership, won twice—and won big In the 2017 general election, Jeremy Corbyn pulled off an historic upset, attracting the biggest increase in the Labour vote since 1945. It was another reversal of expectations for the mainstream media and his ‘soft-left’ detractors. Demolishing the Blairite opposition in 2015, Corbyn had already seen off an attempted coup. Now, he had shattered the government’s authority, and even Corbyn’s most vitriolic critics have been forced into stunned mea culpas. For the first time in decades, socialism is back on the agenda—and for the first time in Labour’s history, it defines the leadership. Richard Seymour tells the story of how Corbyn’s rise was made possible by the long decline of Labour and by a deep crisis in British democracy. He shows how Corbyn began the task of rebuilding Labour as a grassroots party, with a coalition of trade unionists, young and precarious workers, students and ‘Old Labour’ pugilists, who then became the biggest campaigning army in British politics. Utilizing social media, activists turned the media’s Project Fear on its head and broke the ideological monopoly of the tabloids. After the election, with all the artillery still ranged against Corbyn, and with all the weaknesses of the Left’s revival, Seymour asks what Corbyn can do with his newfound success.