Labour’s colossal by-election defeat is yet another sign that Sir Keir Starmer can’t take modern voters for granted, writes Darren Lewis
Critical friends have been telling Sir Keir Starmer for months that his delusional approach to leadership could cost him. Now he stands knee-deep in the ashes of the local elections, a warning shot from the electorate who have had enough of his lack of a backbone.
Yes, governments do lose by-elections. They do get bloody noses. But what we’ve seen in the last week is yet another sign that modern Labour voters won’t be taken for granted. Nor will they be loyal to a party they no longer recognise – and that no longer recognises them.
Many Black, Muslim and working-class voters would rather turn to the Greens, the Liberal Democrats or not vote at all than put an X in the Labour box right now. They are sick of insincerity and duplicity, sick of welfare cuts, disability cuts, Labour and Starmer’s position on Gaza, the lack of a cabinet that is representative of the people. Sick too of the betrayal after noises suggesting they would reverse the 14 years of Tory mendacity. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage and ReformUK continue to target and frighten the people who don’t read the details.
Now that Farage, who has a long history of racist and xenophobic remarks, has Reform in a position where they are actually accountable to the people, their lack of a plan beyond hate and division will finally become more apparent. But the urgent issue right now is Starmer and his Labour government. This should be a time of sunlit uplands and optimism. Instead, traditional left-leaning voters are weary of Starmer’s weakness on the big issues and his unconvincing “man of the people” shtick.
The new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was victorious because of his insistence that he would never yield to the United States. Australia’s Anthony Albanese was successful with his centre-left Labour Party and will form a government because voters trust his determination to deal with cost-of-living concerns and the things that matter to them.
In the UK, many Labour voters feel abandoned. Younger people no longer naturally fall into step with their parents’ voting habits so won’t indulge a party completely out of sync with the modern world. Yes, it is true to say Farage and his ilk have been aided by a systematic campaign within traditional right-wing media and social media to lie, misrepresent and distort the truth in a sustained attempt to destabilise Starmer. But he too is inadvertently giving his opponents plenty of ammunition.
Billionaire Donald Trump and his Republican elite regained power in the US because of his ability to look more in tune with the average working man than the Democrats. Starmer, who appears not to know whether to pivot further to the right or to double down, is ceding similar ground to the extremists.