The unpalatable truth for 'real' Labour supporters, that is those, like me, who adhere to the traditional values and beliefs of the Labour party as they were understood throughout the entire twentieth century, is that the Labour party we believe in is dead. It’s deader than Monty Python's parrot and it’s every bit as blue.
The Labour party of old was a party which stood for democratic socialism and social democracy, the abolition of class-rooted privilege, the public ownership of utility companies, the redistribution of wealth, the protection of the poor, disabled and elderly, and an NHS which is entirely funded and run by and for the public. All these values and beliefs have been or are being ditched by the party which currently masquerades as the Labour party, a party whose policies and positions are roughly similar to those of the Conservative party before Brexit drove it insane.
The response of the Labour party to the drubbing it received at the hands of voters in England at the recent local and mayoral elections has not been to rethink the right wing policies which have caused Labour’s traditional supporters to desert it in droves but to double down on the right wing policies its own voters detest. Last Sunday, the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced new restrictions on visas for care home staff: a sector plagued by staffing shortages and which relies on foreign workers to do the emotionally and physically draining low paid jobs which British citizens won’t do. It’s an appalling example of knee-jerk politics. The truly insane thing is that the chief driver of immigration panic is “small boats”. An issue played to the hilt by the right wing media, and one which has no relation to workers coming in on special visas to take up jobs in the care sector. The issue of undocumented asylum seekers making the dangerous crossing of the English Channel is a problem that remains to be solved and, no doubt, Starmer is cooking up a Rwandan-like solution.
Does the Labour party really believe that as a result of this policy someone who was reluctant to vote Labour is going to say – "Yes! Now my grandmother with dementia won’t be spoon fed by a care worker from the Philippines, I’m voting Labour. Thank you Keir Starmer!" Of course not. Those who hate the idea of immigration are never going to vote Labour because of Labour’s anti-immigration policies. They’re going to vote for the full fat nastiness of Farage. As something that’s recently been making the rounds on social media puts it, Labour’s offering is like soft porn. People who don’t like porn, don’t like it, and people who do like porn don’t like it either.
On Monday, Starmer touted a raft of new restrictive policies on immigration, policies which ignore the realities of the British economy but which represent yet another shift to the right in order for Labour to pander to Reform leaning voters. He shamelessly adopted the language of the far right, talking about “taking back control of our borders” and how immigration risks making Britain into an “island of strangers”. The foreword to the government white paper says high net migration has done “incalculable damage” to the country. This is despicable fear-mongering phrasing which could have been uttered by Nigel Farage himself or, for those with long memories, Enoch Powell. It’s also a lie.
In 2020 Starmer said: “Conservatives have created this hostile environment....we should welcome people wherever they come from.... the UK is better because of immigration... Labour has been a bit scared of making the positive case for immigration.. we need to turn that round.” And that he's certainly done that! By turning Labour round into a right wing Anglo-British nationalist anti-immigration Brexit party. Duplicitous or what?
Channelling Farage was no doubt Starmer’s intention. He is sending the clearest possible signal that his response to the growing political threat from the far right is to take the Labour party even further to the right than he already has. Starmer’s answer to the threat posed by Reform is to become them.
If we are an “island of strangers”, it’s not because of immigration but destruction of the social fabric of communities by a decade and a half of austerity and the public sector being treated by governments, first the Tories and now Starmer’s Labour party, as sources of wealth extraction for private companies and their shareholders. While the rich get ever richer, many of us are so busy trying to earn enough to live on and keep a roof over our heads that social cohesion is rapidly falling apart.
When you see Labour continuing a cruel Tory policy, or allowing something disgusting to come in that the Tories previously set in motion, or adopting a nasty right wing policy in an attempt to appeal to Reform leaning voters, remember that Labour are sitting on an unassailable majority in the Commons that lets them do absolutely anything they want for the next four years. So whatever Starmer is doing, it’s by choice. This government could face down and challenge the right and its media friends. It’s not doing that.
These are unpalatable truths for Labour supporters and voters, but the Labour party will never go back to being a left-of-centre political party. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the Labour leadership embarked on periodic campaigns to expunge the Labour party of ‘Trotskyite entryists’ which was code for actual socialists. All the while Labour really was being infiltrated by entryists, but by right wing entryists in the pockets of corporate interests. Labour is now a right wing British nationalist party, wrapping itself in the flag, presiding over austerity and policies which are cruel to the poor, the disabled, and to minorities. The Blue Labour takeover is complete.
It should be evident by now, to even the most hopelessly partisan and optimistic left wing Labour supporter that the Labour party is no longer a place for them. What will they do? Come to that, what am I going to do? Wanted - good home for a disillusioned leftie!
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