1.2.2 – Establish UK political parties
1.3.1 – Different electoral systems
When the result of the vote on whether to refer the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to the Privileges Committee was announced last week, it was noticeable that 15 Labour MPs voted with the Opposition and against their own party leader. However, the identity of these MPs made it less surprising, with most belonging to the PLP’s most left-wing faction – the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG).
The SCG was founded in 1982 by Tony Benn following the party’s bitter division during his narrow defeat in the party’s deputy leadership contest the year before. In its early days, the group described itself as offering ‘a socialist identity within parliament’, with the aim of promoting closer links to the trade union movement outside Westminster.
The group’s broad aims were largely a challenge to the policies of Margaret Thather’s government. They called for public ownership, stronger trade union rights, and opposition to military intervention around the world. One of the key faultlines between the group and mainstream opinion within the Labour Party was over its critique of capitalism, which more centrist Labour figures saw as something to be managed in order to ensure greater equality.
The emergence of New Labour saw the SCG look increasingly estranged from mainstream opinion within Labour. It remained a small but persistent thorn in the side of Tony Blair and his allies, who had taken over the leadership of the party in 1994. The group opposed New Labour’s amendment to Clause IV of the Labour Constitution and openly challenged the leadership over policies such as university tuition fees, the use of private finance initiatives (PFIs), and the Iraq War.
The resignation of Ed Miliband as Labour leader in 2015 set in motion the events leading to the group’s greatest achievement – the election of one of their own as Labour leader. Jeremy Corbyn had been a Labour MP since 1983, but few saw him as leadership material. Once installed as Leader of the Opposition, other members of the SCG took prominent roles within the shadow cabinet, including two of his closest allies – John McDonnell (shadow chancellor) and Diane Abbott (shadow home secretary). The 2017 and 2019 manifestos came to more closely resemble the views of the SCG, including renationalisation of utilities, enhanced trade union rights, and the abolition of tuition fees.
The resignation of Corbyn as party leader saw the SCG return to the backbenches, as Keir Starmer adopted a more centrist policy agenda. The group are now largely where they were during the Tony Blair years, although Starmer has already shown his preparedness to confront members of the group for its indiscipline – suspending MPs who defied the whip on the party’s plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Other groups that exist within the PLP are the soft left, who would be the main group opposed to the SCG. The soft left are considered to be the largest faction in Labour at present. Another distinct group is ‘Blue Labour’, who combine left-of-centre economic policies with right-of-centre social ones. The group includes the current Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood.
The existence of groups such as the SCG serves to remind us of several important points – firstly of the breadth of views and opinions that exist within the Labour Party (the same is also true of the Conservatives), but also that the ‘hard left’ within Labour is relatively small and its impact often incredibly limited (with the exception of the Corbyn years).
It also shows us the extent of the impact that the first-past-the-post electoral system has in preserving the two-party model in the UK, and the reason for the group’s continued existence within the Labour Party (and why, perhaps, its members have not defected to Jeremy Corbyn’s new party). Whilst countries with proportional voting systems might see ‘big tent’ parties fragment into smaller – more ideologically cohesive – parties, FPTP poses severe risks to breakaway groups, who will struggle to concentrate their votes sufficiently to win seats. Consequently, the SCG sees its best chance of success being within the Labour Party, seeking to influence the collective view of the party, rather than being on the outside where it could be easily ignored.