How can genuine ‘Change’ get past Starmer’s Labour with the Left in retreat and alternatives struggling to find a foothold?
That is the question posed in Openings and Closures: Socialist Strategy at the Crossroads, Socialist Register 2025, edited by Greg Albo and Stephen Maher, published by Merlin and reviewed on LabourHub.
The section on the UK, by Michael Calderbank and Hilary Wainwright, suggests that the Left’s marginalisation cannot be fully explained by the 2019 election defeat of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.
They argue that Momentum’s efforts to organise after this defeat were hindered by Keir Starmer’s rightward march, the witch-hunt against leading people allied to Corbyn, the exodus of many of their supporters from the party and the conditions of Covid Lockdown.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This made organisation more challenging, and also handed control of online meetings and elections to a factional party apparatus.
But it is the unions’ adherence to Starmer’s right-wing version of the party that has caused the most difficulty for the Left, they argue: “Starmer could not have achieved such an iron grip over the internal culture of the party without a notable shift in the mood of the unions on the NEC.”
In return for their loyalty, it seems the unions have been rewarded with a manifesto commitment to a ‘New Deal for Working People’ that is actually very thin gruel: above-inflation pay awards in the public sector and public ownership of part of the railways.
Meanwhile, those suffering most from the cost-of-living crisis – above all, those on benefits (including working people, remember) – continue to pay the cost of mistakes that they did not make.
As a result of Starmer’s insistence on modelling his party after the failed Conservative governments of 2010 onwards, Labour’s polling position is in freefall and the party may be ejected from office unceremoniously in 2029. Calderbank and Wainwright point out that this would be a defeat for the unions as well, and ask why they don’t break from Labour.
The answer appears to be the rise of the far right, personified by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the rightward lurch of the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch. The argument is that the Left needs to focus on an established organisation, rather than on single-issue or personality-based alternatives (the independents who won seats at 2024’s election, and Jeremy Corbyn).
This is clearly a mistake. Attempts to take Labour back from the right-wing basket cases who are currently destroying its credibility as a “party of the people” have failed and it would be insanity to repeat the exercise and expect a different result.
Labour’s leaders won’t even try to meet the needs of working people; they think those voters have nowhere else to go, meaning they can be used in order to retain power while the likes of Starmer, Streeting and Reeves line their pockets with corporate sponsorship money.
The best way to answer that assumption would be to kick them out in 2029 – but without a left-wing alternative, this would pave the way for a government full of far-right headbangers (okay – even further-right headbangers) – and that is a terrifying prospect.
The book suggests that the best role for those of us who genuinely want to build a better future for everybody is within individual communities – as with events in solidarity with Palestine.
That is not acceptable for This Writer.
It would be a betrayal of responsibility. And besides, there are plenty of left-wing voices making themselves heard – most commonly with the call for a wealth tax that would solve the money problems Rachel Reeves has created for herself, meaning the party would be forced to address issues of inequality and poverty.
Reform UK rose, practically out of nowhere, to become a hugely influential right-wing force – and achieved it with only one spokesperson of any significance. The Left has several, and at the moment, they are all pushing the same message.
There is always an opportunity to create genuine change – if the voice demanding it is loud enough.
All we have to do is shake off the chain of conditioned helplessness that Labour and its puppets are demanding we wear – and put them back in their place as public servants whose only job is to do what we tell them to.
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Cruel Britannia is available
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The Livingstone Presumption is available
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Health Warning: Government! is now available
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The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
How can genuine ‘Change’ get past Starmer’s Labour?
How can genuine ‘Change’ get past Starmer’s Labour with the Left in retreat and alternatives struggling to find a foothold?
That is the question posed in Openings and Closures: Socialist Strategy at the Crossroads, Socialist Register 2025, edited by Greg Albo and Stephen Maher, published by Merlin and reviewed on LabourHub.
The section on the UK, by Michael Calderbank and Hilary Wainwright, suggests that the Left’s marginalisation cannot be fully explained by the 2019 election defeat of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.
They argue that Momentum’s efforts to organise after this defeat were hindered by Keir Starmer’s rightward march, the witch-hunt against leading people allied to Corbyn, the exodus of many of their supporters from the party and the conditions of Covid Lockdown.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This made organisation more challenging, and also handed control of online meetings and elections to a factional party apparatus.
But it is the unions’ adherence to Starmer’s right-wing version of the party that has caused the most difficulty for the Left, they argue: “Starmer could not have achieved such an iron grip over the internal culture of the party without a notable shift in the mood of the unions on the NEC.”
In return for their loyalty, it seems the unions have been rewarded with a manifesto commitment to a ‘New Deal for Working People’ that is actually very thin gruel: above-inflation pay awards in the public sector and public ownership of part of the railways.
Meanwhile, those suffering most from the cost-of-living crisis – above all, those on benefits (including working people, remember) – continue to pay the cost of mistakes that they did not make.
As a result of Starmer’s insistence on modelling his party after the failed Conservative governments of 2010 onwards, Labour’s polling position is in freefall and the party may be ejected from office unceremoniously in 2029. Calderbank and Wainwright point out that this would be a defeat for the unions as well, and ask why they don’t break from Labour.
The answer appears to be the rise of the far right, personified by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the rightward lurch of the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch. The argument is that the Left needs to focus on an established organisation, rather than on single-issue or personality-based alternatives (the independents who won seats at 2024’s election, and Jeremy Corbyn).
This is clearly a mistake. Attempts to take Labour back from the right-wing basket cases who are currently destroying its credibility as a “party of the people” have failed and it would be insanity to repeat the exercise and expect a different result.
Labour’s leaders won’t even try to meet the needs of working people; they think those voters have nowhere else to go, meaning they can be used in order to retain power while the likes of Starmer, Streeting and Reeves line their pockets with corporate sponsorship money.
The best way to answer that assumption would be to kick them out in 2029 – but without a left-wing alternative, this would pave the way for a government full of far-right headbangers (okay – even further-right headbangers) – and that is a terrifying prospect.
The book suggests that the best role for those of us who genuinely want to build a better future for everybody is within individual communities – as with events in solidarity with Palestine.
That is not acceptable for This Writer.
It would be a betrayal of responsibility. And besides, there are plenty of left-wing voices making themselves heard – most commonly with the call for a wealth tax that would solve the money problems Rachel Reeves has created for herself, meaning the party would be forced to address issues of inequality and poverty.
Reform UK rose, practically out of nowhere, to become a hugely influential right-wing force – and achieved it with only one spokesperson of any significance. The Left has several, and at the moment, they are all pushing the same message.
There is always an opportunity to create genuine change – if the voice demanding it is loud enough.
All we have to do is shake off the chain of conditioned helplessness that Labour and its puppets are demanding we wear – and put them back in their place as public servants whose only job is to do what we tell them to.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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