After nine months riding on the wave of the general election result, the headaches are growing for Jeremy Corbyn.
Whilst he got his preferred General Secretary candidate – Jennie Formby – elected this week without a major row with Momentum, the week also saw as many as six senior party staffers resigning the day before, apparently unwilling to work for a woman who is variously described as aggressive in personal style, and inexperienced in election fighting.
The departing officials are neither Blairites nor Momentumites, they’re largely the solid, loyal party workers – and senior ones at that – who give everything for the party through thick and thin. They’re the people who know, from a logistical point of view, how to fight a general election because they’ve done it countless times before.
Some on the left are pleased. They can have a complete clear-out of the party hierarchy and install like-minded people in the key posts. But they should beware their pyrhhic victory. Elections are won on organisation as much as on ideas, and the top of the Labour tree looks alarmingly weak from that vital logistical perspective. That may be more important for the outcome of the next general election than anything else which has grabbed the headlines this week.
