Labour are paving the way for their own demise (part I)

What a terrible week for Labour. The list of errors and embarrassments for Gordon Brown is sizeable: A defeat in the Commons over the Gurkhas, a 180 degree U-turn on MPs expenses (see the PM’s comedy turn at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBXj5l6ShpA), David Blunkett warned of a “catastrophic” collapse in trust in the government, Charles Clarke announced he is “ashamed to be a Labour MP,” and Hazel Blears wrote of Labour’s “lamentable failure to get our message across.” And this is not even the whole lot: other backbench Labour MPs have let their disgruntlement be known. Phew.

Poor Gordon must have thought it couldn’t get much worse after Damien McBride’s misdemeanours a few weeks ago, but this only marked the beginning of this string of hand-in-face moments. Harriet Harman’s valiant effort on BBC News this morning in defending the PM and declaring herself out of any leadership contest (which is probably a good thing, because she is not exactly the most popular cabinet member), didn’t fool anyone into believing that there was no trouble at the top in the Labour ranks.

Alan Johnson also offered his support to Leader Brown, but said “I’m not saying there are no circumstances” in which he would contest for the leadership. The weekend and today’s editorials followed a similar theme: “Brown is in his bunker, with a final, inevitable crisis to come” (Independent), “Blarite backlash in the battle for Labour’s soul” (Times) and, “Labour’s dilemmas: denial gets you nowhere” (Guardian). All rather gloomy.

This is a crucial month for politics: if Labour suffer miserably in the European and local elections in June, the cracks in the veneer of togetherness will deepen and become increasingly hard to conceal. Talk of a leadership contest should be the last thing Labour is concerned with. Even the fact there is talk of talk of a leadership contest is dreadful news. We can all remember the Tories’ crisis of identity not so many years ago: it cost the party dearly.