James Millar: Labour’s muppets are learning to steal the show

Its chairman, Huw Irranca Davies, only lasted six months in the job before his attention wandered elsewhere.

He’s abandoning Westminster for Wales, hoping to get elected to the assembly in Cardiff as the only place in Britain where Labour will have any influence for the foreseeable future.

The fight to replace him proved more compelling than anything the actual committee is likely to produce.

Elections were held last week for the role. Colourful leaflets littered the tea rooms as candidates tried to drum up support.

Barry Gardiner, an MP Gordon Brown once appointed special envoy for trees, pitched for the post with a poem that ended: “If you were a bee, you’d want Barry to chair the EAC.”

It’s a sign of how far Labour have fallen that he had forgotten rule one of politics – bees don’t vote.

And so it was that Mary Creagh got the gig instead.

And this is where it gets interesting.

For Creagh’s last campaign was significantly less successful.

She stood to be leader of the Labour Party on a solidly pro-business stance but didn’t even get on the ballot.

Jeremy Corbyn did.

Creagh, a former shadow environment secretary, beetled off to the backbenches rather than serve under the new leader along with a number of other so-called moderates who’d previously been in the shadow cabinet.

Chuka Umunna, another wannabe leader who dynamited his own campaign early on, Liz Kendall, who at least got to the finishing line in the leadership race – albeit a lowly last – and Rachel Reeves followed the same path.

These characters had all been elected in 2010 and fast-tracked into Ed Miliband’s team.

Corbyn’s victory saw them effectively backbenchers for the first time as their previously straight-forward career trajectory stalled.

Politicians who expected to be ministers were left looking like muppets.

Chuka, like Kermit, the charismatic core of the operation, Kendall the Miss Piggy that packs a punch, while Creagh is hard to pigeonhole, like Gonzo.

Just as at the start of any Muppet movie worth its salt, the characters are off doing their own thing so this gang has dispersed, largely to the committee corridor.

Umunna is making a name for himself on the home affairs committee as a sparky interrogator and former Bank of England wonk Reeves has landed a seat on the Treasury select committee that holds the Chancellor to account.

Kendall is on the communities committee getting to grips with real local issues like library closures and bin collections.

They are learning the trade of being an MP, picking up tips on how to work with members from other parties, people with differing ideological views, and achieve consensus while getting what they want.

Stuff they ought to have done before.

The likes of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown entered parliament in 1983 and spent years learning the ropes before they rose to prominence.

Their early careers away from the limelight gave them time to think too, about the direction of the Labour Party, what they wanted to achieve and how to do it.

The current crop of talent may be living life in reverse but better late than never.

They are picking up skills to succeed, particularly when they inevitably move against Jeremy Corbyn.

In the Muppet movies, when the gang finally gets back together they form a tight-knit team and put on a show.

As in the films the finale when it comes should be memorable.

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