Jack Straw: We should have called general election (From Blackburn Citizen)

Jack Straw: We should have called general election

2:53pm Thursday 3rd December 2009

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GORDON Brown’s decision not to call a snap general election months after coming to power has turned out to be the wrong call, Blackburn MP Jack Straw said today.

The Justice Secretary told the New Statesman magazine that, in hindsight, Labour would have been better off going to the country in the autumn of 2007.

The Prime Minister, who enjoyed several months of good opinion poll ratings after taking over from Tony Blair, pulled the plug on the snap poll that was being urged by some colleagues.

He said publicly that he wanted time to get his message across to the British people but was accused of being a “bottler” faced with a post-conference Tory revival.

Since then, David Cameron’s Opposition has moved, and stayed, well ahead in the polls and is now the overwhelming favourite to win the election, which must be held by June.

Mr Straw, who was the campaign manager for Mr Brown’s eventually unopposed leadership bid, said he had not been among those pressing for an election.

He told the magazine there were good arguments against such a strategy at the time, not least that “the evidence did not appear to be that we would have won with a good majority”.

Asked however if he now felt the PM should have called the snap election, he said: “Yes, entirely in hindsight. But I was not saying that [then].”

He went on: “Whether to call an election became an issue only at the time of the [Labour] conference. By that stage, Gordon had said he was there for the rest of the parliament.

”There was also something practical: if the election had been called then it would have taken place after the clocks had gone back in early November.”

Nor did voters like elections being called “unnecessarily”, he suggested.

”The public might have said: ‘You’ve got a majority, why don’t you use it?’

”And for a prime minister to change in mid-government is nothing unusual.

Eden, Macmillan, Callaghan and Major: it has happened four times in recent decades.

”The evidence also did not appear to be that we would have won with a good majority. These were the arguments.”

Mr Straw said he believed the public were now beginning to see “the real Gordon”.

”Working closely with him in recent times, I’ve discovered what a nice and decent man he is,” he said - suggesting the PM’s popularity had been held back by his shyness.

”I’m an extrovert. Gordon is a nice man, but he’s shy. People occupy different points on the Myers-Briggs scale,” he told the magazine.

”Gordon’s diligence and energy are extraordinary.

"But, look, there are different personality types in politics.

"I’ve been struck in recent weeks that the real Gordon is breaking through.”

He went on: “I know elections are fought through the prism of personalities, but I do think people are beginning to see what Gordon is about.”

Mr Straw urged Labour MPs not to give up hope of victory.

”Yes, the economic situation is difficult. On top of that, there’s the whole issue of the expenses scandal, which has been completely demoralising for some and disastrous for others.

”It has hit us as the governing party disproportionately.

"But there’s no reason to give in and accept defeat.”

And he denied retaining any leadership ambition himself.

”I am not, and would not be, a candidate for leadership in any circumstances,” he said.

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