Pro-business London mayor Sadiq Khan one of the opposition Labour Party’s most powerful figures, heaped pressure on his socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn to deliver an election win, using a speech yesterday to stress the importance of being in office.
Khan became Labour’s most senior elected official in May, beating a candidate from the ruling Conservatives to win a huge mandate over London’s £17bn budget which covers areas like business policy, housing, policing and transport.
His remarks are a direct challenge to Corbyn, who was re-elected as leader of the party last week after surviving an attempted coup triggered by lawmakers who said his leadership had been weak and focused on ideology rather than winning power.
“Labour out of power will never ever be good enough,” Khan told Labour’s annual conference in the northern city of Liverpool.
His speech used the words “in power” around 30 times.
“It’s only with Labour in power can we create a fairer, more equal and more just Britain,” he added. “And when Labour’s not in power, we fail the very people who need us most.”
Britain is not due to hold a national election until 2020, but some in Labour say the June vote to leave the European Union will force one sooner.
The government says it has no need to do so.
Corbyn sat on stage throughout Khan’s remarks but did not join the audience of party activists and officials in applauding during his speech, only clapping at its conclusion.
Opinion polling released last week showed only 16% of voters though Labour was likely to win the next election under Corbyn compared to 65% who thought the Conservatives likely to win under Prime Minister Theresa May.
Khan won control of London promising to be the city’s most pro-business mayor ever.
Although he nominated Corbyn as leader in 2015, he has since backed away from the veteran lawmaker’s left-wing policy agenda, and voted for Corbyn’s rival in the Summer leadership challenge.
His speech comes a day after Labour Party finance chief John McDonnell set out a raft of radical business policies to be enacted if Labour wins power at the next election, much of which drew sharp criticism from business groups.
Earlier Corbyn, a lifelong campaigner against nuclear weapons, agreed to put to one side any attempt to reverse Labour’s support for renewing Trident in a bid to reduce tensions with unions and rebel MPs.
Clive Lewis, the shadow defence secretary, told the Guardian that Labour would continue to scrutinise moves to build a replacement for Britain’s nuclear deterrent – clarifying the leadership position hours after an apparent row on the issue.
He added: “I won’t be coming back to conference between now and the next election to try to undo the policy we have on Trident as things stand.”
The statement came after a bizarre episode at the party’s annual conference in which Lewis appeared to react angrily after a senior Labour figure altered his speech to delegates at the last minute.
Seumas Milne, director of strategy and communications, was said to have used the autocue to remove the suggestion that Labour “would not seek to change” the party’s formal pro-nuclear policy before a general election, in a move that critics claimed was an attempt to tone down the announcement.
Sources close to Lewis and Corbyn tried to play down the suggestion of a row, saying instead there were last-minute tweaks to the text of the speech and insisting that there was no divide on policy.
They said that Labour’s collective position would remain in support of Trident renewal, but revealed that Corbyn would continue to speak out in opposition in line with his longstanding support of unilateral disarmament.
The leader’s closest ally, John McDonnell, also waded into the debate by insisting that the deal to “park” any changes on Trident policy was meant to “steady the ship” but insisted that neither he nor Corbyn would be silenced on the issue.