Keir Starmer is leading a party with no coherent vision but collusion with Blairite advisors and a war on the left of the party. At the September 2021 Trade Union Congress speech, Starmer’s main policy was the uninspiring Labour leadership election rule changes. This change is aimed to weaken the left of the party by increasing the threshold to 20% of MPs consent for a leadership candidate. This was Starmer’s second attempt at leadership election rule changes with his 1 vote, 1 member system firmly rejected by the unions. Furthermore, the fact that such a trivial issue is prioritised over the focus on improving ordinary people’s lives (during a period of increasing post-Brexit and COVID inflation) smacks of the uninspiring dullness of Starmer’s leadership. As Andy Burnham said about the policy in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg: “people are not interested in the minutiae of rule changes in political parties”.
This focus on such a trivial matter is also the realisation of a man who has abandoned his own principles in the desperate attempt to re-enact the electoral successes of Blair. The ounce of socialism in Starmer has become increasingly diluted. It was only 18 months ago that Starmer’s “Ten Pledges” included the public ownership of 4 of the big 6 energy firms (rail, mail, energy and water). On the 26th of September 2021, Starmer proceeded to categorically rule out nationalisation on the Andrew Marr Show. On the 27th of September, Andy McDonald then resigned from the shadow cabinet following Starmer’s refusal to support the £15 per hour minimum wage. Starmer’s 14,000-word essay published on the 23rd of September omitted even the mention of “common ownership” and “economic justice” even though these were promises he was elected Labour leader upon. This is the product of a man whose policy is directed by the advice of detached former Blair advisors, such as Sam White and Mandelson, as he desperately strives to appear “electable” (Mandelson’s involvement caused outrage among unions in early May 2021). Resultingly, Starmer is failing to appeal to disillusioned working-class voters as Labour have shifted towards a more metropolitan, centrist and Pro-EU status. While Starmer has looked his best at the PMQ’s, incisively criticising a bumbling Johnson over controversies such as the cronyism and corruption of COVID contracts, the impact of National Insurance hikes on ordinary people, the inadequacy of the extended free school meals, Universal Credit cuts and the lack of dignified pay rises, he consistently fails to propose inspiring alternatives to potential Labour voters.
Instead, he has marginalised and antagonised the left of the party with his weaponization of the anti-Semitism smear campaign to sack Rebecca Long-Bailey and withdraw Corbyn’s whip. Long-Bailey’s supposedly “anti-Semitic” offence was retweeting an interview in which Maxine Peake described some of the violent practices of US police officers “as learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services”. While allegedly untrue, such a criticism is not by any means anti-Semitic. Corbyn, a lifelong anti-racist campaigner, was smeared as anti-Semitic when in actual fact, he opposed the treatment of Palestinians by Israel – a political rather than a racial stance (as described in my article The Censorship Crisis - "Hypocritical, Calculating and Suffocating"). Even though the NEC panel lifted Corbyn’s suspension in December 2020, Starmer still refused to restore Corbyn’s WHIP. This demonstrates that Starmer merely utilised the anti-Semitism smear campaign to dislodge his political opposition, a move reminiscent of a soviet political drama. This comparison was also made by Ken Loach in his interview with Double Down News where he indicated Starmer had gone from “Mr Bean to Stalin” in his dictatorial “purge” on the left of the party. Ken Loach was also expelled from the Labour party, much to the dismay of many democratic socialist figures such as John McDonnell who labelled it a “disgrace”. Loach was expelled from the party for refusing to condemn four other groups who were seen as downplaying “anti-Semitism” in the party. While there could well have been some issues with anti-Semitism in the party, many figures such as Corbyn, Long-Bailey and Loach were expelled despite being undoubtedly anti-racist and innocent.
Furthermore, Starmer’s focus on identity politics (as seen with his recent controversial claims that “it’s wrong to say only women have a cervix” on the Andrew Marr show September 2021) is another reason for the further alienation of traditional working-class Labour voters. Corbyn was arguably guilty of the same through his reluctant pro-EU stance, but referenda do make such divisions inevitable. Starmer recently lost Hartlepool in May 2021 by a large tory landslide in the by-election. This is symptomatic of a leader who colludes with Blairite advisers, fails to inspire, wages war against the left of the party, has betrayed even his own principles and avoids endorsement of more nationalisation and tax hikes on the super-rich. Starmer even opposed the increase of corporation tax from 19% to 24% in March 2021 whilst the Tories actually supported it!
To remain true to its colours, Labour desperately needs its democratic socialist grassroots support. In 2017, Corbyn and MacDonnell’s inspiring socialist manifesto secured 40% of the vote. Despite its “radical” nature, it reinvigorated Labour and its prospects (with young people turning out at record levels and the Labour membership soaring to the highest in Europe at nearly 500,000 members). While the 2019 election was catastrophic, Labour was ultimately doomed over largely unavoidable Brexit divisions and the media anti-Semitism smear campaign, perpetuated even by “centre-left” media such as The Guardian. Since then, Starmer has exiled and suppressed the passionate left-wing roots of the party and moved increasingly closer to the centre. Not only has he sacrificed the integrity of the party, but he has also killed the momentum it once had. The fact that the uninspiring Keir Starmer is the namesake of the socialist founder of the party, Keir Hardy, is a sad indictment on the decline of Labour.
Starmer’s fall is inevitable. Andy Burnham and Lisa Nandy will be waiting in the wings among many other candidates, eager to steer the party to a more inspiring and left-wing position. The question is: has Keir Starmer just become another centrist mouthpiece for the establishment?