Study On Intra-party Struggle Over Brexit In The British Labour Party

After the Brexit referendum in 2016,there was a fierce struggle within the British labour party over the issue of Brexit.As the leader of the Labour party Jeremy Corbyn was hesitated on the issue of Brexit and never made a clear decision on "leave or remain".Consequently,two-thirds of Labour MPs expressed their dissatisfaction.More than 30 cabinet members resigned,left the party and even attempted to launch a coup to overthrow Corbyn's leadership.Mr Corbyn's vague position was assailed by Boris Johnson,the Conservative leader,which brought the Labour the worst general election result of 2019 since the end of the second world war.Why did the Eurosceptic leftist leader,Jeremy Corbyn,insist on his vague position on Brexit in the intra-party struggle?First,in Labour's decentralized structure,the Labour leader lacks the final say so as to compromise on some big issues.On the one hand,the Labour party is a decentralized federalist party,consisting of the parliamentary party,the constituency Labour party and the trade unions,all of which can exert influence on the party's decision-making through the National Policy Forum.On the other hand,Labour leader's electoral system was reformed into "full party members,registered supporters,affiliated supporters each accounts for 1/3 of the total votes by one person one vote".The reform actually deprived of Labour MPs' power to choose their party leader and resulted in a "leader--MPs" dual leadership system,lacking of an absolute leadership core in decision making.Therefore,when the party is divided,the leader Corbyn has to adopt a compromise strategy in the line struggle in order to maintain his leadership.Second,the partisan divisions originated from previous intra-party struggles proceeded in the situation that Eurosceptic Corbyn was leading a faction of pro-European "Blairite"MPs.From the end of the World War ? to the 1990s,the party's debate on European issues was synchronized with the disputes on "nationalization",for the European Community was regarded a "capitalist union" based on the exploitation of laborers that split the party into the anti-European faction on the left and the pro-European faction on the right.In the early 1980s Labour's leftist leader Tony Ben trained his successor Corbyn,while rightist leader Kinnock trained his successor Blair.During his 10 years in office,Blair cultivated a large number of pro-European "Blairite" MPs.However,after the European debt crisis in 2008,a wave of populism emerged in Britain,which led to Corbyn's coming to power."Blairite"MPs became Corbyn's biggest resistance after he was elected as the Labor leader.Third,the EU's development on social welfare since the 1980s has resulted in the division of interests of Labour voters and trade unions over the issue of Brexit,making it difficult for leader Corbyn to choose between "leave and remain".Although joining the EU went against the Labour's stand of "nationalization" and "expanding public spending",the EU,since the 1990s,has significantly carried out a series of new political reforms on labour rights,environmental protection,and LGBT rights that accord with Labour's pursuit of social equality.It is the dual nature of the EU issue that led to the divide among the different trade unions and constituencies.This paper finds that among Labor 's dominant constituencies,the ones with greater reliance on EU market share stronger Brexit sentiment.The single economic structure of the old industrial bases in the middle and north of England is highly dependent on exports to Europe and more vulnerable to the European debt crisis.Therefore,they called for economic sovereignty and "nationalization" through Brexit.On the contrary,the greater London and Scotland have the best economic condition,complete economic structure,low dependence on the EU market and are less affected by the European debt crisis.Similarly,trade unions of traditional industry prefer to leave the EU and expand "nationalization",while those of culture,education,science and technology,environmental protection,human rights and other industries prefer to stay in the EU to protect their own interest.The polarization over Brexit among trade unions and different constituencies will inevitably be transmitted to the top of the party and cause fierce intra-party struggles.Combining history and reality,and using the dual framework of "power struggle" and"line struggle" to analyze,this paper summarizes Corbyn's strategies in the intra-party struggle.First,he adopted a vague and flexible policy strategy in order to maintain his power.Second,balanced the forces of different factions and recruited members of the opposition into the cabinet to maintain the party's unity.Third,responded to the opposition's demands by proposing alternatives.Fourth,seized the opportunity to expand intra-party consensus and worked in concert against the Conservatives.However,confronting deep divisions within the party,Corbyn had to compromise in the line struggle and adopt vague and delaying tactics over Brexit.Thus the British Labour party was ruthlessly abandoned in the 2019 general election by voters who had got tired of Brexit.