The staunchly socialist Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn has indicated he would bring back his party's historic commitment to the public ownership of industry, more than two decades after it was abolished.
This insight into Mr Corbyn’s likely priorities as leader comes amid reports that five major Labour donors would stop giving to the party if the veteran leftwinger was elected next month.
In an interview with the Independent on Sunday, Mr Corbyn suggested he would consider bringing back the original clause IV as part of a commitment to renationalise some "necessary things".
The decision by Tony Blair to scrap this section of the party's constitution was a seen at the time as a symbolic move to restore public trust in Labour and broaden its appeal among voters. However, Mr Corbyn said at the weekend it was time to reconsider this decision.
“I think we should talk about what the objectives of the party are, whether that’s restoring the clause IV as it was originally written or it’s a different one, but I think we shouldn’t shy away from public participation, public investment in industry and public control of the railways.
“I’m interested in the idea that we have a more inclusive, clearer set of objectives. I would want us to have a set of objectives which does include public ownership of some necessary things such as rail.”
Buying the ‘big six’
Last week Mr Corbyn said the government should start buying up shares in the “big six” energy companies until it owned a controlling stake, explaining that he wanted to nationalise British Gas, SSE, Eon, RWE Npower, Scottish Power and EDF, as well as the National Grid.
Responding to his latest plan, Liz Kendall, the leadership candidate regarded as being closest to Mr Blair's New Labour ideology, immediately dismissed the idea of a clause IV revival.
“This shows there is nothing new about Jeremy Corbyn’s politics,” she said. “It is just Bennism reheated, a throwback to the past, not the change we need for our party or our country . . . Life had moved on from the old clause IV in 1994, let alone 2015. We are a party of the future, not a preservation society.”
Yvette Cooper, Labour's shadow home secretary and another frontrunner in the leadership race, also poured scorn on the idea of reviving the historic policy.
“The British economy needs new high tech entrepreneurs, innovation and growing business, not a return to the days of British Leyland,” she said yesterday.
“The government’s role is to back the skills, science, research, infrastructure and childcare that employees, business and industry all need in the modern economy. We should be working in partnership with business, not spending billions of pounds we haven’t got buying businesses out.”
Mr Corbyn's surprise success – he has won more constituency party nominations than any other candidate – has broadened existing fissures within Labour about the future direction of the party. He is currently second favourite to win, after Andy Burnham.
But according to reports in the Sunday Telegraph, a victory for Mr Corbyn could leave Labour entirely dependent on trade union funding. Five senior donors – including Assem Allam, owner of Hull City, and Richard Brindle, the insurance magnate – told the newspaper he would be a "disastrous" leader and warned that they would withhold millions of pounds in future funding if he won the contest.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)