More than two-thirds of Labour members want the party to shift to the left – as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces calls for a reset of the direction of his Government
More than two-thirds of Labour members want the party to shift to the left – as Keir Starmer faces calls for a reset.
Polling by LabourList, shared with The Mirror, shows 64.5% of Labour members back a move to the left, with just 1.6% calling for a rightwards shift.
Next weekend will mark a year since Keir Starmer won a landslide election victory. But now, the PM is battling flagging poll ratings, rebellious Labour MPs and the surge of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
After last week’s U-turn on welfare cuts, Mr Starmer’s former political director Luke Sullivan warned the Government it must “use this as a moment for a reset”. Some Labour MPs have grown uneasy over the direction of the Government, culminating in a major rebellion over welfare cuts.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer in huge DWP benefit cuts climbdown as he offers deal to rebels
Keir Starmer was forced into a climbdown over plans to cut Personal Independent Payments to avoid a humiliating defeat in the Commons. He had faced losing a crunch vote on his welfare legislation next week after 126 backbenchers signed a rebel amendment.
It came after the PM last month announced a U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments. The policy sparked a backlash and was blamed for a difficult set of local election results for Labour, while Reform UK took control of a number of English councils.
There have been signs that Labour has been spooked by the success of the rightwing outfit. The Home Office has published pictures and video of migrants being deported, sparking criticism from refugee charities.
Mr Starmer also came under fire when he said Britain was at risk of becoming an “island of strangers” in a speech on immigration, which drew comparisons to Enoch Powell’s infamously racist Rivers of Blood speech. The PM has since admitted he “deeply regrets” using the phrase.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome said: “While this government has taken some crucial steps towards undoing this, there’s a growing sense across the country that the scale of change just isn’t matching the urgency of the moment, while other policies, like the proposals to cut disability benefits, feel like a repeat of the austerity era. At a time when the far-right is gaining ground both at home and abroad, Labour must also show bold, principled leadership. We cannot abandon our progressive values in pursuit of Reform voters.”
One Labour MP, who asked to speak anonymously, told The Mirror: “Personally, I don’t think you can ever out-Reform Reform, or the right, on issues like immigration. That isn’t who we are.
“We are an internationalist party and that’s what our values should remain rooted in. We’re haemorrhaging votes to progressive left-wing parties, not to the right.”
They said the series of U-turns over winter fuel cuts and disability benefits showed the Government “did not have a clear plan”. Criticising the welfare reforms appearing to be born out of a need to save money, the MP continued: “When you start from a position of wanting to just make cuts, inevitably, you are going to hurt the most vulnerable.
“And that’s a political choice, and it was the wrong choice, morally and economically, and it was moving us away from our Labour values: Equality, social justice and fairness. We’ve just got to remember who we are as a party… We shouldn’t be tacking anywhere to the right on any of these issues.”
Another Labour MP said party members want the party to return to its “core values” and just be more “Labour”. “The Labour Party was set up in the first place to be a voice for working people, to stand up for equality and social justice, and therefore they won’t recognise the party today and some of the decisions it’s making,” they said.
They said ensuring people had vital support, as opposed to withdrawing it, trying to lift children out of poverty, and trying to clamp down on corporate greed should be at the heart of Labour values.
They said “there are so many positive things” the Government are doing, from renationalising the railway, building more social homes, improving employment rights, or expanding free school meals for kids. “But when it comes to these crunch issues, they’re just missing the point. Not engaging with people that policies are impacting is not how the Labour Party should behave. So I just call on the Labour Party to be more Labour.”
But not all Labour MPs agree with party members’ plea to move to the left. MP Gurinder Singh Josan said: “When it comes to winning elections, how the voters see things has to be more important than just our members’ views.
“And recent elections, including the catastrophic 2019 general election defeat under a markedly more left wing leader, shows voters are more often in the centre and are more interested in practical solutions to everyday problems rather than an ideological fixation.”
Another Labour MP, who also did not want to be named, said moving left was not the solution and the Government must continue to be “country first, and party second”. “I’m a big fan of solutions-based politics where you don’t always have to be entrenched in a left or right view,” they said.
“It’s about what will deliver the change that’s needed for the country. So we’ve got our manifesto, that’s what’s being voted on, and then in terms of the policy that we push through, it’s to deliver that. Left, right, centre is completely irrelevant.”
The MP said, immigration issues such as the small boats crisis should be looked at from a humanity, security, economic and infrastructure perspective.
“It’s about then finding solutions that some might perceive as being more to the right, but actually it’s about delivering them within Labour values, so you’re not demonising and creating that horrible rhetoric that we see from some parties,” they added.
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster