The U.K. is suffering from a vacuum of leadership just as it enters what is arguably its greatest political upheaval since the end of empire and the establishment of the Commonwealth in the 1950s.
On Friday, David Cameron announced his intention to resign as Prime Minister until a successor from his Conservative Party can be found later this year. He was humiliated by the shock of Britain voting to exit the European Union in Thursday’s In/Out referendum. The Prime Minister had spent months renegotiating his country’s terms of membership in the hope this would be sufficient to persuade the electorate to vote to remain within the bloc.
It wasn’t, and now his party is divided over who should succeed him. The favorite is the charismatic former London mayor, Boris Johnson, who campaigned to leave, but plenty of M.P.s who backed Cameron would prefer A.B.B. – Anyone But Boris. The next leader will determine how the U.K. goes about leaving the E.U., though the bloc, badly bruised by the rejection, wants divorce proceedings to start straightaway.
Political logic would suggest that the turmoil in Government means that Her Majesty’s Opposition should be in excellent position to make hay by appearing united and authoritative. But that is not the case. The Labour Party is led by Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left MP who shocked every pundit and politician, including himself, by trouncing his rivals for the leadership with nearly 60% of the vote last year.
![The leader of Britain's opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, leaves his home in London The leader of Britain's opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, leaves his home in London on June 27, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/jeremy-corbyn-labour-party.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
Few of the party’s lawmakers wanted Corbyn to win. They don’t believe he has the broad appeal needed to lead Labour to a general election victory and have been plotting to oust him for months. Now, his enemies have struck. Two of his M.P.s, Margaret Hodge and Ann Coffey, have submitted a motion of no confidence, which their colleagues are expected to overwhelmingly back later this week.
Labour MPs believe Corbyn is partly to blame for the “Brexit” vote. While Labour’s lawmakers are overwhelmingly pro-E.U., Corbyn has a long history of liberal Euroskepticism. Although Corbyn eventually campaigned for the U.K. to remain, his many critics argue his support was too obviously lukewarm: asked on the campaign trail about how passionate he was about staying in the E.U. he answered “about seven or seven-and-a-half” out of 10.
Crucially, Labour failed to persuade its heartlands to vote to remain. Wales and the North of England went resolutely for Brexit, seemingly confirming fears that Labour has grown out of touch with the working classes in poorer areas.
Labour’s typical voters have been angered by high levels of net immigration, which hit 333,000 last year, the second highest on record. They blamed the principle of freedom of movement within the E.U. and have been flocking to the insurgent U.K. Independence Party, despite its hard-right policies on other issues.
Waking Up in a Changed Nation
![UK. London. June 24th, 2016. Brexit referendum. "Taken from the headlines of The New Yorker: 'British lose right to claim that Americans are Dumber'." Brexit referendum. London, UK, June 24th, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/nn11473197.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. London. St Pancras station. June 22nd, 2016. “It is depressing. Great Britain is an island, but until today it was part of Europe. Meant to be tight. To be bonded to those countries. I need it to be reversed.” St. Pancras Station, London, UK, June 22, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/01_zachmann2.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. London. June 23, 2016. Polling station on the day of the Brexit vote. “Fuck this.” Polling station on the day of the Brexit vote, London, UK, June 23, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/02_mikhael-subotzky1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. London. June 23, 2016. Lips on Old Street. “The British have always been the best and sharpest contrarians…the irony, the satire, the against-the-grain nature. But this might not have been the time for that…well, I guess as a Norwegian I now should welcome them into the outside-club!” Lips on Old Street, London, UK, June 23, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/03_jonas-bendiksen1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. Post Brexit referendum. London. 2016. “GB for me? No idea how to answer that this morning.” Post Brexit referendum, London, UK, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/04_christopher-anderson1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. Post Brexit Referendum. Broken eggs on old street. London. 2016. “I have spent half my working life photographing Britain and the British and I have no illusions about the dark side of the nation but I believed the good in the nation outweighed the bad and that gave me pride and respect for my country, but I do feel that the rejection of tolerance, and respect for our fellows that was enshrined in the referendum vote rejecting the EU is a stain on the nation. It is an acceptance of xenophobia and small mindedness. It is the cry of a diminished nation howling NO!!!” Broken eggs on Old Street, London, UK, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/05_chris-steele-perkins1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![“Great Britain for me was all about inclusion, a place where immigrants from less fortunate parts of the world are welcome, like the America of Europe. Sadly, today marks the beginning of a different kind of nation, one filled with uncertainty and fear about the future.” Cale Salih, my wife, a British citizen, waking up to the news of the Brexit vote. London, UK, June 24, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_moises-saman1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![“Very sad day from my side.” Parliament to Downing Street a few minutes after the Prime Minister resigned. London, UK, June 24, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/07_stuart-franklin1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. London. June 24th, 2016. Day after the Brexit referendum. “After all those quirky Britts posting ‘Romaine’ all day yesterday.” Day after the Brexit referendum, London, UK, June 24, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/08_thomas-dworzak1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![GB. London. June 24, 2016. The day after the Brexit vote. The day after the Brexit vote, London, UK, June 24, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/chc2016008g0624-1636.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA “Hope it’s not as bad as it seems.” A day after Brexit vote. Borough Market, London, UK, June 24, 2016. Dave Santos, 31 from Canary Islands, works for a Spanish food company. He has been studying here for many years and doesn’t know what he is going to do post October.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/nn114732871.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UK. London. June 23rd, 2016. “There was nobody in the polling station when I went to vote, probably (hopefully I thought) because of the torrential rain coming down outside. ‘Are you documenting the determination to vote?!’ shouted a passer-by. The moment seemed friendly, light and very British. I went off feeling ultimately positive and so I was devastated this morning to wake up to the news that we had collectively made this huge, stupid, irreversible decision.” London, UK, June 23, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/11_olivia-arnold1.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
News has leaked that Labour headquarters even told local branches to swerve the immigration issue by not even referencing this on referendum campaign leaflets despite protestations that this would leave the party looking “not credible.”
This has only hardened the feeling that Corbyn is out of touch with his party’s natural voters and now the Labour leadership’s critics hope this will force Corbyn to step down or at least trigger a fresh leadership contest.
Corbyn has sacked his critical but popular foreign spokesman, Hilary Benn, a move that has seen around half of his shadow cabinet quit in protest in addition to a growing number from the more junior ranks. Undeterred, Corbyn has filled the vacancies by promoting key allies who are to the left of the party, such as his former researcher, Cat Smith.
Lord Falconer, a former roommate of Tony Blair, was one of those who has resigned. The former shadow justice spokesman tells TIME that Corbyn has focused too heavily on international disputes when the country is still recovering from the turmoil reaped by the financial crisis.
“Jeremy’s causes are a million miles away from what concerns our heartlands,” says Lord Falconer. “He worries about foreign policy, in particular the Middle East, Trident [the U.K.’s nuclear submarine defences which Corbyn wants to scrap] and Syria. The focus should be on economic inequality since 2008 – our heartlands see pressure on the NHS, housing and school places as a result of more Eastern European immigrants.”
Stephen Kinnock, the son of former Labour leader Neil, quit his role as a Parliamentary aide. He adds that Corbyn is only used to speaking to people on the left who agree with him. Corbyn has made a virtue of this by portraying himself as a man of principle, but this has meant that he would not even share a platform with Cameron, a right-winger, during the E.U. referendum campaign.
Kinnock argues: “There is a leadership vacuum. While I understand that Jeremy had a large mandate when he won the leadership last year, the job description has changed.
“We need the Conservatives to agree to a cross-party approach to the negotiations on what the U.K.’s new relationship with Europe will be, with the Prime Minister leading and the Labour leader as deputy.
“But the whole point is that we need a credible person who is a hard-headed negotiator, and that means compromising with people you don’t agree with. Jeremy has spent his entire career in rooms and forums with people who agree with him.”
Another Labour lawmaker, who asked for anonymity, warned that if Kinnock’s point is not heeded, Labour could see itself “wiped out” in areas like the North. The party has already lost one of its major historical strongholds, Scotland, as a result of the nationalist movement there.
The loss of that area saw Labour collapse to a crushing defeat in last year’s general election. The party’s senior politicians thought this was the nadir – they now fear they were wrong, that Corbyn can only take them further away from power.
Meanwhile, the Government is in disarray and Labour is too focused on its own problems to seize on that advantage.
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Write to Mark Leftly / London at mleftly@yahoo.co.uk