Chapter 52
Judged against the first half of 2016, the first months of Douglas Alexander’s leadership were a tentative success for Labour. The party received the traditional polling boost that came with the instalment of a new leader, and Labour had now re-established a small polling lead over the Conservatives. Much of this growth came at the expense of a slowdown in support for the Alternative. The left-wing bloc had scored an early success over Alexander when both the TSSA and CWU voted to affiliate to Respect, but it soon became clear that these events had made very little impression on the voting public. What they did notice was a Labour Party which had rid itself of its old leader and had now, in the run up the EU referendum, instilled a degree of unity and purpose that had been lacking since the General Election.
And just as Labour was coming back together, cracks had begun to emerge within the Alternative. To some extent, these two trends were interlinked. As the afterglow of the Sheppard surge began to recede, and it became clear that little to no progress had been made in the polls since the previous May, long time sceptics of the party leadership once again began to voice their criticism, especially over the upcoming EU referendum, where Sheppard seemed ready to officially throw his party behind a Remain vote.
The Brighton Conference in 2016 would see the founding of ‘Respect Leave’ a eurosceptic group that aimed to advance the argument for a Leave vote within the party. The organisation would attract the support of prominent Respect figures, such as the newly elected Bristol MP Jerry Hicks, along with dozens of councillors up and down the country. One of the group’s first objectives would be to lobby for the party to not take an official line on the upcoming referendum, and instead allow its members to campaign as they saw fit. In the months that followed, Respect Leave would emerge as the most visible opponent of the Sheppardites, who had previously seemed to have secured a near hegemonic position within Respect.
Bristol MP Jerry Hicks speaks at a 'Respect Leave' event in November 2016
But it was the issue of antisemitism that would prove to be most damaging to the party as 2016 came to a close. This was a problem that had reared its head before on several occasions in the party’s history, most recently during the general election campaign, when accusations regarding prominent Respect Party resurfaced at the height of the Sheppard surge. In October, it hit the headlines once more, as the Guido Fawkes blog published allegations that Roy Smart, a candidate for the following years council election in Tunbridge Wells, had repeatedly shared material on social media that promoted Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Smart would be suspended from the party for his behaviour, but the incident would prove to be the catalyst that would bring similar controversies to light. In the weeks, that followed, several prominent members would also face disciplinary action for expressing anti-Semitic views, including candidates selected for the Welsh Assembly Election in 2017, and two members of the National Council, Jackie Walker and Marc Wadsworth.
The hard line against anti-semitism that was adopted by Tommy Sheppard and Paul Hilder, now the party’s new National Chair, would win plaudits from some sections of the media, but it would also be met with resentment within the party itself , as many felt that due process was being sacrificed for the sake of public appearances. The ‘Stop the Witch Hunt’ group which had rallied around George Galloway almost five years previously was heavily critical of the suspensions. The campaign was able to attract over 20,000 signatures to a petition against the measures, which was endorsed by the likes of such as Hicks, the MEP Liz Davies, and even Ken Livingstone. Sheppard could take some consolation from a YouGov poll that indicated that the public and a small majority of Respect members supported the actions of party office in these matters, but it could not be denied that the revival of the internal disputes that had characterised the earlier part of his leadership was taking a toll on the party’s support in the country. The bloc’s average polling position would decline from 16.1% between May and September to 13.9% in the final three months of the year, bringing the buoyant mood that had lasted from the election to party conference season to an abrupt end.
Nevertheless, few could deny that it had been a momentous year for Respect. The party now had two dozen parliamentarians (a nearly fivefold increase) split across the House of Commons and the new elected House of Nations and Regions. Tommy Sheppard had become the face of left wing populism in the UK, and this had given him the power within the party that he had needed to push through those changes he had failed to implement three years previously. Nick Wrack had resigned as party chair, and had been replaced by a staunch Sheppardite in Paul Hilder, who was intent on turning Respect into a formidable grassroots campaigning movement. The party had also launched its first affiliated think tank, ‘Left Field’, at the party conference in Brighton. Increasingly, it seemed that Respect was building itself up as a genuine rival to the two main parties.
However, few would have said the same of their partners. Whilst the Greens had taken major steps forward by sharing in the exponential success of the Alternative, the ‘Sheppard surge’ had seen them once again take a back seat to Respect, as they were increasingly considered as the junior partners within the alliance. This was an issue that was of concern to many Greens, and would be given greater prominence as the party leadership fell vacant for the first time in eight years, as Caroline Lucas resigned her post shortly after the election. Having finally made it into parliament, Lucas felt that the time had come to give someone else within her party the chance to lead, whilst she focused on representing her new constituency in Oxford East.
The early favourite to succeed her was the Norwich South MP, Adrian Ramsay. However, Ramsay would surprise many by announcing that he would not stand either for leader, or for deputy leader, proclaiming that he too wanted to focus on his constituency. Ultimately, the only MP to stand for the vacancy would be Molly Scott Cato, who had recently been elected as the representative Bristol West. Her main rival would be the Senator for South West England, Derek Wall. Despite having been a major figure on the party left for decades, Wall was also a critic of the party’s modernisation over the past decades, and its alliance with Respect, which he felt ‘diluted’ the Green’s independent identity.
Molly Scott Cato campaigns in the 2016 Green Party Leadership contest
It was perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that Wall came to be viewed as the ‘anti-alliance’ candidate, despite the fact that he favoured looser ties with Respect and others, rather than an end to all collaboration. Ultimately, it would be Scott Cato who would win by a convincing margin of 23 points, with Wall second, followed by Pippa Bartalotti, Rashid Nix, and Clive Lord, who all languished in the single digits. Meanwhile, Senator Shahrar Ali and Islington councillor Caroline Russell were elected as deputy leaders. Scott Cato’s victory was a more comfortable one than many had expected and was largely seen as a vote of confidence in the Alternative by the Green membership.
Nevertheless, the fact that nearly a third had opted for Wall showed that there was still a significant scepticism about the party’s current relationship with Respect, and in the months that followed, Scott Cato attempted to take steps to address these concerns, pressing for the Greens to be given greater prominence within the Alternative through more appearances in the media, and by appointing the party’s five MPs to cover high profile topics as part of the Alternative’s new joint team of parliamentary spokespeople. This made the relationship with Respect a more transactional one that it had been under Lucas, but it did give Scott Cato and other major Green figures the opportunity to become some of the best-known figures within the Alternative. Whilst few expected the new Green leader to rival Sheppard in her public profile, Scott Cato hoped that asserting her party’s prominence would prevent it from being totally overshadowed by Respect in the national consciousness.
In the second week of November 2016, the world was delivered a major shock, as unabashed right-wing populist Donald Trump, the New York businessman and reality TV star who possessed no political experience whatsoever prior to running for office, defeated former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for the US Presidency. Clinton had been favoured for a comfortable victory by most pundits, but on the night, however, this expectation turned to dust, as Trump not only won traditional swing states such as Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, but expanded the Republican appeal to places that had not voted for the GOP in decades, particularly rust belt states like Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Trump’s appeal to the white working class was a major driver behind his victory. The Republican won both the electoral college (by the comfortable margin of 326 votes to 205) and the popular vote.
US broadcasting network CBS News announces that is has officially called the election for Donald Trump
The profound sense of shock generated by Trump’s election was not confined to his domestic opponents. Many leading political figures across the western world had not taken the possibility of a Trump victory seriously until it was far too late. These included David Cameron, who had previously branded Trump’s controversial calls for a ban on Muslims entering the USA as ‘stupid’ when he had first proposed it in 2015. The Prime Minister, and many other members of his government were now forced to clarify their previous statements, and to express a willingness to work constructively with the new US President. That Cameron was among the first world leaders to phone the President-elect after his victory spoke to the emergence of a more pragmatic attitude to the incoming administration. This was an approach that proved difficult to maintain, as Trump showed no signs of leaving his outspoken behaviour on the campaign trail. On the frequent occasions when Trump stepped outside of the boundary of what was considered acceptable political discourse, such as with his refusal to condemn activists at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Cameron found himself forced to condemn the new President. On occasions, the Prime Minister’s statements would draw the ire of Trump himself. For instance when Cameron pushed back on Trump’s claims that London had become like a ‘warzone’ due to the rise in Muslim perpetrated terror attacks in the capital, the President replied on Twitter by telling the Prime Minister that he should “focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!"
Incidents like these, plus Trump’s instinctive distrust of Cameron and his liberal, pro-globalisation viewpoints, did much to undermine British attempts to foster good relations with the latest occupant of the White House. What was more, they would also create problems for Cameron’s minority government at home, as Conservative relations with the Liberal Democrats, on whom their parliamentary majority relied, were increasingly strained by Cameron’s efforts to preserve strong ties with Washington despite the change of leadership.
This scepticism was echoed by the Labour opposition. Douglas Alexander, and his new Shadow Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, were frequently critical of the government’s failure to take a more robust anti-Trump stance, and indicated that they would be opposed to any state visit from the US President. However, it was the Alternative that would place themselves at the head of the anti-Trump movement in the UK, playing a key role in protests against the actions of the US Commander in Chief, and even using Trump’s election to further their argument for withdrawal from NATO, a longstanding policy of both Respect and the Greens.
Anti-Trump activists in the UK take to the streets of London shortly following the result of the Presidential Election
Of course, with the EU referendum fast approaching, many would question whether a similar backlash that was seen from the populist right in the US could also take place in the UK. To be sure, there were clear parallels between the alienation of the white working-class voters who had fuelled the rise of UKIP, and that of their counterparts across the Atlantic who had played such an important role in installing Trump in the White House. However, whilst the warning to the Remain campaign was clear, some considered the new President, who had overwhelmingly negative approval ratings amongst British voters, to be a blessing in disguise for the European cause, as it was hoped that the idea of cosying up to Trump’s America when outside of the EU would prove an unappetising prospect for many of those who were on the fence, and shift public opinion towards the remain side.
Meanwhile, Trump’s election also offered hope to anti-establishment parties across the western world, who saw the result as evidence as what could be achieved by adopting an unapologetically populist message. For all its promise, the surge against globalisation had thus far failed to convert a substantial growth in support into control over the levers of power. Now, that had clearly changed, as a populist had seized the most powerful elected office on the planet. Whether left wing or right wing, anti-establishment forces could take heart from this when looking considering their own fortunes in 2017, which was likely to be a pivotal year for them across multiple continents.
