Just why does Abbott have so little traction with her fellow Labour MPs? Partly this can be explained by her having been out of step with the Labour leadership for many years. She is a member of the Campaign Group of Labour MPs, the leftmost grouping in the parliamentary party, and was resolutely opposed to New Labour and the Blair interregnum, frequently rebelling against the official line.
This may explain why she was not offered ministerial office while Labour was in power, but it does not explain why she has so little appeal even to her fellow left-wingers. The Campaign Group has 15 members in the current parliament, so she received the vote of less than half of them.
Perhaps it can be explained by the fact that she gives a very good impression of being a terrific hypocrite. All her socialist principles would presumably drive her towards supporting the proposed Mansion Tax on properties worth over £2 million; after all, it is claimed to be a redistributive tax on privilege. But no, since becoming interested in the mayoralty — and noting that Londoners will be disproportionately hit by it — she has come out strongly against the tax.
The best-known case of Abbott's hypocrisy was her decision to send her son to a leading fee-paying school, City of London. Of this, she said, "Private schools prop up the class system in society. It is inconsistent, to put it mildly, for someone who believes in a fairer and more egalitarian society to send their child to a fee-paying school."
Her justification? "I'm a West Indian mum and West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children." Why West Indian mums should be different from other mothers remains a mystery. Such explanations may make Abbott seem more human, but they certainly don't burnish her credentials for idealistic socialist leadership.
After her failed leadership bid Ed Miliband made Abbott Shadow Public Health Minister in 2010, about as junior an opposition front-bench post as it is possible to award. She was sacked in 2013 for being insufficiently loyal to the party line and for a lack of commitment to the post. Abbott showed little displeasure at her sacking; this is perhaps unsurprising as it enabled her to return to Neil's cosy sofa and blather on with Portillo about the week's political events — at £700 of BBC licence-fee-payers' money per session.
This may explain why she was not offered ministerial office while Labour was in power, but it does not explain why she has so little appeal even to her fellow left-wingers. The Campaign Group has 15 members in the current parliament, so she received the vote of less than half of them.
Perhaps it can be explained by the fact that she gives a very good impression of being a terrific hypocrite. All her socialist principles would presumably drive her towards supporting the proposed Mansion Tax on properties worth over £2 million; after all, it is claimed to be a redistributive tax on privilege. But no, since becoming interested in the mayoralty — and noting that Londoners will be disproportionately hit by it — she has come out strongly against the tax.
The best-known case of Abbott's hypocrisy was her decision to send her son to a leading fee-paying school, City of London. Of this, she said, "Private schools prop up the class system in society. It is inconsistent, to put it mildly, for someone who believes in a fairer and more egalitarian society to send their child to a fee-paying school."
Her justification? "I'm a West Indian mum and West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children." Why West Indian mums should be different from other mothers remains a mystery. Such explanations may make Abbott seem more human, but they certainly don't burnish her credentials for idealistic socialist leadership.
After her failed leadership bid Ed Miliband made Abbott Shadow Public Health Minister in 2010, about as junior an opposition front-bench post as it is possible to award. She was sacked in 2013 for being insufficiently loyal to the party line and for a lack of commitment to the post. Abbott showed little displeasure at her sacking; this is perhaps unsurprising as it enabled her to return to Neil's cosy sofa and blather on with Portillo about the week's political events — at £700 of BBC licence-fee-payers' money per session.
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