LONDON (AP) – Britain’s Labour Party lost the election. Now it is losing its way, careening into a crisis that could rip apart a party that governed for long stretches of the 20th century.
Labour is seeking a new leader to help it regain voters’ trust, and an old-school socialist lawmaker who has never held government office has gone from longshot to apparent contender- to the horror of party chiefs and the delight of political opponents.
The strongly anti-austerity Jeremy Corbyn has risen to second-favorite among four candidates in bookmakers’ odds, behind more centrist legislator Andy Burnham, as he wins over a growing number of disillusioned Labour members.
Labour lost power in 2010 after 13 years in office, and was trounced by the Conservatives on May 7 in an election polls had predicted would be close. Voters handed Prime Minister David Cameron’s party another five-year term, convinced by its argument that spending cuts were needed to reduce a huge deficit created by Labour’s economic mismanagement.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led Labour to three consecutive election victories, made a rare return to British politics Wednesday to warn his old party that Labour needs to “win from the center.” He said adopting an “old-fashioned leftist platform” of tax-and-spend policies would alienate voters just as it did during the 1980s, when Labour floundered as Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher moved Britain’s economy to the right.