The two most recent Labour leaders campaigning on the road during the 2019 election. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

As Labour gather in Liverpool, in an attempt to regain some moral credibility after a dire first few months in power, a storm is gathering on Starmer’s Left. For now it lacks the media spotlight of donor-funded birthday parties and New York city breaks, but its political implications could ultimately prove greater. At its helm is the man Starmer sought to discard like a piece of rubbish: Jeremy Corbyn.
Rishi Sunak surprised almost everyone by calling a snap election in May, including the former Labour leader — who remained a party member but had lost the party whip in 2020. It was clear he would never be permitted to stand for Labour again, but as Sunak stood outside No. 10 — resembling a bedraggled school prefect — Corbyn moved quickly. Two days later he announced he would run as an independent. The party he first joined in 1965 was firmly in his sights.
For many, the move against Corbyn several years earlier was primarily driven by the desire to break with his socialist politics. Indeed, it was the first in a series of moves that the leadership undertook to defang the party’s Left. Later came top-down deselections of Faiza Shaheen and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, while Sam Tarry lost a close vote with the controversial “Anonyvoter” system being deployed. And yet, in the election itself, confounding historical precedent, Corbyn – as an independent – retained his seat. The battle for Labour, and the future of the British Left, had begun.
Expelled from the party, and outside the tent, Corbyn is arguably more trouble for Starmer. He now sits under his own flag, alongside four other outsiders propelled to Parliament by their opposition to austerity and trenchant criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. And while their election campaigns weren’t coordinated, these five independents are now getting organised, announcing a formal Independent Alliance earlier this month. That makes them the fifth largest grouping in Westminster. Alongside four Green members, moreover, theirs is the largest gathering of “Left of Labour” MPs in history. What was initially an inchoate rejection of Starmer across a grab-bag of seats is becoming a national movement.
Worse still for Labour, this all began during what was supposed to be the pinnacle of Starmer’s appeal. Yet within three months of forming a government, one recent poll has Labour as low as 29%. Six-in-ten voters now say the Prime Minister can’t be trusted and, most remarkably of all, Starmer is less popular than Rishi Sunak.
Not that the Conservatives will benefit from Labour’s deepening woes. Despite his penchant for freebie designer glasses, the public still views Starmer more favourably than leader wannabes Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly. More broadly, the electorate remains more critical of the Tories than Labour. All those years of ineptitude haven’t been forgotten overnight.
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