While MPs are prepared to rebel, Jon Lansman says Starmer’s authoritarianism and cavalier attitude to pledges have disillusioned thousands and tactical voting will be necessary in the next general election
In 50 years of Labour membership, I’ve seen 23 years of Labour government, but we’re further away from achieving our domestic objectives than ever. Members and voters have deserted Labour in spite of global challenges, political, economic and environmental, greater than at any time since 1945.
It’s not the members who should go, but Keir Starmer, for his timidity, lack of ambition, inability to communicate, charisma vacuum, authoritarianism, and for destroying even any pretence of internal party democracy. And for his dishonesty, when he stood to be Leader, for his ten disarming but false pledges.
Where are we with his promises to increase taxes for the top 5%, abolish tuition fees, put public services in public hands or defend migrants’ rights?
By installing factional organisers, gerrymandering every candidate’s “selection”, you might have expected an acquiescent PLP, but the scale and frequency of backbench rebellions are reminiscent of the 1970s.
Keir Starmer won the 2024 election with a lower voting share (33.7%) than that when Corbyn lost the 2017 election (40%). And yet Starmer’s net favourability ratings, according to YouGov, have fallen since then from +11% to -44%.
Unfortunately, Starmer won’t go, not least because so many members of Corbyn’s Labour Party have already gone. Though there will be a new Left party, it may take many months of squabbling. Opportunistic vultures like Dave Nellist are already circling!
The Corbyn/Sultana project will progress, but can two parties maximise representation to the left of Labour under first past the post? No, but they may well maximise the possible reduction in Labour votes.
So where does this leave those of us left in Labour, given that so many have already gone? The June 26 YouGov MRP poll predicts a hung Parliament with Reform probably able to form a government with Conservatives and Unionists. We must consider, first, how we best organise inside the Labour Party and affiliates, and secondly, how we stop Farage.
Inside the party, there’s no time for grand launches of new organisations, so we need Compass (following their excellent conference in May) to work even closer with Momentum on a work programme, broad and focused, that will engage the whole range of the Left that has not left!
The Left and union link are both weaker than they were, but beating Farage and preventing a Trumpist Britain requires This Great Movement Of Ours to arise from its slumbers. TIGMOO must live again! But we will not win alone.
The battle won’t be in Parliament or council chambers but in party and union branches, to engage and revive them, defeat complacency, explain that Starmer is leading us over a cliff, and we must change direction, get our party back and end authoritarianism. Starmer must go! Trade unions need a real Labour government. We have no chance of winning back working-class voters until that’s what we’re offering.
Stopping Farage will be easier if we make those changes, but it cannot be achieved by a weakened Labour Party alone in 2029! First past the post has become the far right’s best friend. Nor, I think, will any tactical arrangements between parties be sufficient to prevent a Reform-led government.
The Electoral Calculus MRP poll in June 2025 predicted that Reform would win 377 seats and be able to govern alone with a majority of 273. If Farage maintains anything like that level of support, we need an organised tactical voting campaign to defeat Reform. It would require a willingness by sufficient supporters of Labour, Lib Dem, Green, Corbynite, Plaid and SNP parties (and perhaps of some independents) to vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the Reform candidate to guarantee success.
Perhaps the best approach would be to determine which candidate should be supported in each constituency not by local agreement between parties or amongst local voters who turned up at meetings (as George Monbiot advocated in the Guardian, 27 May 2025) but by an MRP poll. That would go a long way towards avoiding the possibility of a failure to agree because it would be based on the (estimated) preferences of local voters rather than a self-selected group of activists at a meeting. Larger polls could be arranged where the poll result fell outside an agreed range. Sitting Independent MPs could also be included.
What would need to be agreed on is which potential candidates/parties would be eligible to be chosen. I personally think it’s essential to include Labour, Lib Dem, Green, Plaid Cymru, SNP, Corbynite, and some but not all Independents (e.g. ex-Reform) who were sitting MPs. That is a broad range which is surely appropriate in opposing the far right.