WITHIN THE space of 18 months, when asked whether he’s ruling himself out of being leader of the British Labour party, Alan Johnson’s line has turned from a “Yeah, I kind of am” to yesterday’s “I am not saying there’s no circumstances.”
The use of the word “yeah” is a good indicator of AJ’s appeal. Gordon Brown has probably never said “yeah” when the phrase “I believe it is right” would do, and now it is being briefed that the former shelf-stacker and rocker Johnson – the everyman of the cabinet – should take over from Brown to bring a demotic lightness of touch to the job.
Johnson knows who the Super Furry Animals are; Brown might confuse them for another band he’s professed to liking, the Arctic Monkeys. Johnson can perform tricky policy manoeuvres while maintaining friendships – witness his being the only trade union leader to back abolition of clause IV in 1997 – while keeping allies.
“Alan Johnson would save us 100 seats – he is our only chance of hanging on to power,” an anonymous MP told one newspaper.
But the description of Johnson as the saviour of the Labour party has long been used. As far back as May 2006, the senior Tory adviser Nick Boles wrote that Johnson was the Labour leader that Tories feared most. Each time Johnson’s name has been placed in the frame, the man himself has delicately removed it.
Asked in 2007 why he did not try for the job when Blair left, he said: “I don’t think I would have been good enough, frankly.” Eight months ago, he said the deputy leadership contest had finished “the little bit of ambition I had”.
Circumstances have changed. Now, effectively, half the field may have been knocked out as the party comes to the conclusion that it is unlikely a young candidate – either Miliband, Purnell, Burnham – will step forward to take over when a miserable few years beckons.
What is needed now, they say, is a “caretaker manager”: Harman, Straw or Johnson. Yesterday, Straw ruled himself out, leaving Johnson as a possible “Stop Harriet” candidate; Harman, of course, being the woman who beat him to the deputy leadership.
Downing Street knows these circumstances have changed, too, and it might be for this reason their eyes have been on Johnson. He was summoned for a meeting with the prime minister a few months back when it was felt that Johnson had “disappeared”. Johnson was busying himself with the steady stewardship of the department of health, for so long a bad news story but this year a generally positive picture.
Johnson, it was felt, could take some of the strain off Brown by shouldering a couple of bad news stories or appearing on TV to brag about successes. Downing Street wondered what Johnson was up to – keeping himself clean ahead of any leadership challenge? The irritation was briefed and he rose to the challenge, touring the studios to promote the government’s Alzheimer’s strategy.
One Blairite cabinet minister urges caution to MPs thinking Johnson is their answer: “Alan is attractive now that he is out of reach and improbable, but if Gordon turned around and said ‘I’m going’ and Alan took over, Brown would become the conquered hero and Alan would become a second-rate leader of the Labour party.” Another minister points to the number of occasions Johnson has been backwards about coming forward: “Alan exudes decency and calm and competence but . . . he knows he’d have a three-month honeymoon and then be trashed with people saying: ‘Look at the pygmy now running the party’.”
In October Johnson shared with a fundraising dinner one of his favourite words: “I want the leadership of the party to remain unbepissed.” – (Guardian service)