So, the one definite thing in what happens next is that Gordon Brown won’t be a part of Labour’s future.
The other certainty is the release of the grip that Scottish politicos have had over the Labour Party — and British politics by default.
Power fills a vacuum, and that hole has already been filled by Labour London, which has created a formidable fighting machine and is buoyed by election results thought impossible a year ago. It is the kingmaker that will decide if David Miliband will take over.
The political map of the capital now has a solid core of red. It controls eight more Labour councils, having gained more than 180 councillors. Westminster seats were secured despite Ashcroft cash; the party held Hammersmith — home of the Conservative easyCouncil project — plus Westminster North and Tooting. And it won the marginals of Harrow North and Enfield.
The BNP and Respect were seen off by what Tessa Jowell called “highly targeted campaigns”, run by disciplined and focused teams which get the job done with little fuss.
And now the area organisers are looking for both blood and payback. Labour central had already been told that Brown was no longer an asset. “This makes it easier to put the knives in,” was the reaction by one activist to the PM’s statement.
What is not generally known is that a team within London Labour — including senior MPs from the capital — had quietly opened negotiations with the Liberal Democrats over power-sharing months ahead of the election to lay the groundwork for a deal.
Ed Balls is out of favour (too close to Brown), but David Miliband cannot take support as a given: London members long ago tired of being taken advantage of.
The local party’s intense focus is now on the city’s mayoral race, which it believes is for the taking with a decent “non-Ken” candidate.
“Oona [King] is a possible, but she’s got a life outside politics and needs some convincing,” said one Hackney activist.
London Labour is confident it can turn a possible bid by Boris Johnson for David Cameron’s job into a chicken run — and the Tories are seriously worried by the Labour turnout.
One Tower Hamlets member reflected on Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition as its 60th anniversary fell this week: “This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. We’re just getting started; it’s time one or two in the party sat up and took notice.”
Chris Smith is news editor for the MJ and a former lobby correspondent. A specialist on UK government at all levels, he has written for the Guardian, the Times, Sunday Times, the Channel 4 News election FactCheck, Auto Express, HSJ and ePolitix.com.
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