centreleft // a new voice from the British left

Jon Cruddas certainly had a dilemma over Gordon Brown’s reshuffle. And it is a shame for the party that he has not joined the government. Cruddas could have helped turn a Brown-Blair armistice into a Labour Party ‘popular front’. By staying out, the government tilts a little further right than it might otherwise have done.

Westminster watchers believe he was made a rather more concrete offer – indeed series of offers – than the somewhat vague non-job to be a nominal regional minister which he turned down following the deputy leadership election.

Had Cruddas been offered a Cabinet post, he certainly ought to have taken it. But it is also easy to understand why he may have feared being subject to collective responsibility without a full seat at the top table – for example, had he, rather than Margaret Beckett become the Housing Minister (attending Cabinet, but not a full member of it), especially as the table is getting rather crowded for intense debates about political strategy.

Cruddas was keen to get more involved in party management. But there would have been genuine difficulties reconciling an expanded role for Cruddas with the deputy leader and party chair Harriett Harman, especially with Brown, Alexander, E.Miliband, Mandelson and now Campbell all seeking a voice in campaign message and organisation. Hence the compromise of a backbench role while leading the party’s challenge to the BNP.

The decision to refuse office may still have been finely balanced.

Party loyalists may well feel that Cruddas should have accepted the ‘all hands on deck’ call to serve, but not being seen as desperate for office also plays well in these anti-political times.

And Cruddas’ chances in a future leadership contest could be increased or reduced by not having ministerial experience. Remaining on the backbenches would allow him to be a ‘clean break’ candidate – but he would have more work to do to establish himself as a potential premier with both MPs and the broader public.

Indeed, Cruddas does have experience in government – as a former Downing Street fixer and link to the unions for Tony Blair. Cruddas’ new status as the ‘tribune of the left’ can be overstated – it also reflects the failure of those left of New Labour to find new arguments and leaders during the last decade.

But Cruddas has begun to fill that space and establish himself as a significant voice in the party, though he is more likely to repeat his deputy leader ‘kingmaker’ role than to be leader himself.

He has done well during these turbulent few months by challenging on policy and not on personality. If he continues to do that from the backbenches, he may continue to feel that he made the right choice.