Could Ken Livingstone be heading back to the political frontline? The Sun on Sunday reports that he could return to the shadow cabinet as a Labour peer. Will he?
Jeremy Corbyn’s aides have considered using the House of Lords to redress the political balance of the shadow cabinet – and Livingstone would be as close to a pain-free appointment as possible. The three parts of the party that will object to the appointment – Jewish members, the parliamentary Labour party, and opponents of Lutfur Rahman, the former independent Mayor of Tower Hamlets – are all, in any case, mostly opposed to Corbyn anyhow. Among the bulk of the party membership – Corbyn’s power base – Livingstone remains popular. Labour members elected Livingstone as their mayoral candidate on three seperate occasions and elected him to the party’s ruling NEC just two years ago.
Ennobling Livingstone has, in the words of one staffer, two benefits “vote and voice”: a vote to add to the Corbynite bloc around the shadow cabinet table, and an additional frontbench advocate on the airwaves – at present, only Diane Abbott, the shadow international development secretary, has both media experience and Corbynite politics. Putting Livingstone in as a shadow minister without portfolio, in a role similar to that handed to Stewart Wood, Ed Miliband’s close aide, would also give the leadership an ally who could speak across policy areas, potentially outflanking shadow cabinet ministers with whom Corbyn disagrees, just as Wood’s interventions on business and the economy set out a different approach to that of Ed Balls or Chuka Umunna.
However, there is one major factor holding back the appointment: it is unlikely that the Cabinet Office will appoint any more peers of any political stripe until June, meaning that Livingstone would face a six month wait at the outside, even if he were notionally appointed in a January reshuffle.
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