The Labour Party at a time when the whole economic system is in question – facing potentially its deepest crisis in the history of capitalism – has the wrong leadership. Keir Starmer, praised by a key architect of austerity, George Osborne, pitched to the left in his successful challenge to become Labour leader. But only a few days needed to pass for that pretence to die.
He constructed a shadow cabinet that gave a few mild sops to the left, then added in the most trenchant opponents of the Corbyn project. Wes Streeting, Jess Phillips and Stephen Kinnock to name a few. Let’s be plain: this was always the way back for the Labour right. It was never going to come from an arch-Blairite, but through peeling sections of the soft-left away from Corbynism.
This worked in tandem with parts of the core apparatus of the party at an institutional level militating against Corbyn in the most depraved manner, as shown by the Labour leaks. Understandably this has led to widespread revulsion among party activists, who have had their work deliberately and systematically undermined by the party structure itself. In turn, many have left Labour, while many leading figures on the left urge them to stay.
