For British Labor, changing leadership is not an easy task and, above all, takes an enormous amount of time. Monday, February 24, the more than 500,000 party members were finally able to start voting for one of the three candidates to replace Jeremy Corbyn, Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long Bailey, two and a half months after the historic defeat of the movement in general elections. The results of the races will not be announced until April 4. In the meantime, Boris Johnson can continue to conduct his policy without operational opposition.
The stakes are certainly considerable for Labor: the party of the British left is in its fourth general election in a row lost. With only 202 elected to the House of Commons in December 2019, his defeat is even the most bitter since 1935. The question is now whether the party, which celebrates its 120th birthday this week, but has not sent any more Prime Minister to Downing Street since 2010, is still able to conquer power.
Keir Starmer, 57, is considered the big favorite, even though Lisa Nandy has emerged as a very credible alternative and, conversely, Rebecca Long Bailey, considered to be Mr. Corbyn's heir, now appears to be struggling. An eminent jurist, Mr. Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales until 2013. Member of Parliament for Holborn and Saint Pancras (central London) since 2015, he has already garnered 60% of support from local cells party.
Caution of the favorite
Secretary of Brexit in the shadow cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn, Mr. Starmer is not close to the latter, who, since 2015, has taken a serious turn to the left to the party, positioned very central since the Blairist period of the "New Labor ". He did not support Mr. Corbyn’s candidacy in 2015, he even resigned from the shadow cabinet in 2016 (before being reinstated there) to protest his ambiguous attitude towards Brexit.
However, since the start of the internal campaign, Mr. Starmer has put aside his convictions of "remainer", a supporter of staying in the European Union (EU), and has been careful not to raise the subject of Brexit, which has so deeply divided the party since 2016, and partly explains its failure in December. There is no question, for example, of advocating for a future reintegration of the United Kingdom into the EU. Because Mr. Starmer presents himself above all as the party's "unity candidate". "We must come together because a divided party does not win the elections", he repeats throughout meetings.
