Corbyn's 'austerity lite' claim is a myth
We hear it again and again about the kinder Politics that Jeremy Corbyn’s era will herald in.
No more adversarial politics. No more political attacks. No more grandstanding. But from John McDonnell’s comments about MP’s being ‘f**king useless‘ to the misogyny shown toward female MP’s on social media, the face of the new self-righteous but pernicious politics is emerging.
However, one of the long standing abuses that has gone overlooked is how Corbyn’s team have typecast Ed Miliband as a sell out to austerity, when Miliband, in terms of Economics, was one of the most radical leaders of the Labour Party we have seen since the Foot or even Attlee era.
The anti-austerity agenda did not begin with Corbyn but with Miliband. Manuel Cortes asserts on LabourList that is Corbyn who ‘seized his moment with his opposition to austerity’. But as John Lansman admits it was Miliband who laid the ground for Corbyn.
It was Miliband who took the membership towards the left. If it was not for him, Corbyn would not have won with the majority of the membership in 2015.
Corbyn was eager to court Miliband for support once he won the election but throughout his labour leadership campaign in 2015, he sought to belittle Miliband’s legacy. This quote typified Corbyn and his team’s approach to Miliband during the campaign:
“In the last election we were offering a form of austerity-lite, albeit we did very well on zero hour contracts and a number of other issues, but we were in effect offering austerity-lite”
In the Labour leadership hustings he continues to pedal this myth:
“It’s not good enough to go on the doorstep and say we’ll have less cuts than they will, that we’ll be austerity-lite”.
If we go by this logic, Corbyn himself must be offering austerity-lite as well, because on economics, he’s are standing on the same platform as Miliband. If anything, he’s copied and pasted wholesale from Miliband’s 2015 manifesto.
As Owen Jones forensically points out in his brave and passionate plea for answers from the Corbyn team, all the landmark policies Corbyn is standing on are the same as Miliband’s: the same fiscal rule, the same proposal around railways, the same regarding British investment banks, the list goes on.
In Corbyn’s recent interview with Jones he declared his admiration for the German social democratic model. But interestingly this is the model that ran through the spine of Milband’s policies. Miliband was much closer to the founder of the German Social Democratic Party Eduard Bernstein, than he was to Blair.
The fundamental myth that has been propped up Jeremy Corbyn during his time as leader is that he instigated the anti-austerity agenda. It was only he who could truly stand up to big business and reshape our economy to create security for workers, except it was Ed Miliband that got there first.
Corbyn’s attacks on Miliband, and then his quickness to champion him, show the disingenuous nature of the new Kinder Politics.
If only Corbyn could learn from the Miliband era, that it was his style and lack of coherent narrative that were his failing, not that he was following some quasi-austerity agenda.
Sam Pallis is a Labour member on the executive of his local CLP and an active Young Fabian. Follw him on Twitter.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
19 Responses to “Labour’s opposition to austerity began with Ed Miliband – not Jeremy Corbyn”
Jon Knox
I was all for Ed Miliband. I kept urging him to remember his Dad and stay hard-line LEFT, and he definitely did propose some excellent things, like his promised energy bills freeze for example…! BUT he threw the election away with his refusal to emphasise his intentions and force the issue – which is what he should have done. He also allowed himself to be made a figure of fun with those press pictures, which he should have replied to, in kind, against Cameron…!! He just wouldn’t fight tough. And while Corbyn may seem anything but tough – he doesn’t cave-in with his proposals but sticks to them like glue. And the people have noticed that – and love it…!!!
G Jones
The verb to herald does not require the preposition in. I do find an accurate command of the English language integral to commentary and critique.
Roosterous
If you’re going to make a claim (eg that Milliband’s Labour was anti-austerity) then you do need to back it up with some evidence and/or facts. When JC points out that Labour stood on an austerity-lite, not anti-austerity platform, you can’t just say ‘oh no they didn’t’ and expect to be taken seriously. Make your case, show us the evidence. Otherwise, it just comes across as random Corbyn-bashing, and that doesn’t work any more.
john
Sam, an interesting analysis – but why would you post a link to ‘misogny’ then attempt to use the linked article to imply that it is Corbyn’s supporters that are sending the vile abuse.
As you know, abuse comes from all sides, and is always to be condemned; and yet you still imply that it only comes from one side – this is a simple smear, and does your overall argument no good, because people can see right through it.
Alasdair Macdonald
Mr Miliband’s big error was allowing the mainstream media and the Labour troglodytes to back him into an anti-SNP corner. Labour was already in dire straits in Scotland following the independence referendum and its 41 MPs in Scotland vanished like ‘snaw aff a dyke’ in the General Election and were reduced to a single union-Jack suited individual who was elected on the strength of Tory voters in Morningside switching to keep the SNP candidate out, a candidate who had already queered his pitch by some stupid statements. Usually, to form the government of the UK with a workable majority, Labour needs a big tranche of Scottish seats. Mr Miliband’s ineptitude in responding to being seen in Mr Salmond’s pocket and in his risible claim of customs posts at Carlisle, simply confirmed the judgement of the hundreds of thousands of voters in Scotland who had left Labour. The same thing is happening in the Midlands and North of England and was a factor in the strength of the Leave vote in the EU referendum.
This leadership election is about the Blairites scrabbling to keep their snouts in the trough and get billets with privatised health companies when their electorates turf them out.