Labour doesn’t need ‘unity’ – it needs a leader who can return us to power

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The guest speaker was Andy Burnham, then shadow health secretary, and I vividly remember him praising then leader Ed Miliband for keeping the party together; “So often in Labour’s history,” said Andy, “when we have lost, we have torn ourselves apart and turned in on each other. Now, as we survey the smouldering wreckage of the Labour Party after its worst election defeat since 1935, Andy’s speech and the word “unity” keep coming back to me. But wanting an end to this has already meant too many people keeping their heads down and not challenging the drift to the hard left even as antisemitism grew, the manifesto turned into an absurd wish list, and the leader acquired cult-like status – even as we knew perfectly well what the election outcome would be. But if unity is to be prized above all else – above asking the difficult questions and making the necessary compromises, expelling racist members, tackling abusive behaviour and bullying in local parties, speaking truth to power or being honest about why we lost and what it will take to win – then the Labour party is doomed to slip back to 2014: heartily applauding our internal comradeship, but ultimately failing the public test for which we were created.