Morning Star Editorial: Purge of dissenting MPs is a sign of Starmer’s weakness
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/purge-dissenting-mps-sign-starmers-weakness
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in Downing Street, London, on his first official visit to Britain, July 17, 2025…
Just 12 per cent of the public approve of the government’s record, a historic low. Current polling shows the great majority of Labour MPs losing their seats at the next election, either to Reform, or to the new left party struggling to be born, or in Scotland and Wales to nationalist parties.
Certainly, at present it is as easy to see the suspended four — and the already-whipless John McDonnell and Apsana Begum who rebelled a year ago against the two-child benefit cap — securing re-election as independents than as candidates of the Starmer regime.
It is certainly hard to see this move breaking resistance to the new austerity agenda going forward. Only successful leaders can hope to get away with this sort of crackdown.
So this latest exercise in authoritarianism speaks only to Starmer’s loss of capacity to advance his right-wing agenda, as well as to his consigliere Morgan McSweeney’s blinkered view that whatever the problem is the answer lies in attacking the left.
But it is also a challenge to the Labour left. Over the last five years it has consistently failed to find the means to arrest the Starmer-McSweeney purge of the left, often for want of the simple virtue of sticking together when under attack.
The response to the latest suspensions has been robust, in words at least. The left has shown it can inflict defeats on the government, reversing specific policy proposals.
But it is now beyond obvious that only a fighting plan to actually oust Starmer himself has any prospect of reversing Labour’s dismal prospects in time to save the next election. They should take every opportunity — and even create them — to express no-confidence in this government of austerity, war and authoritarianism.
Failure to do so will certainly turbocharge the case for the new socialist party being promoted by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. The appeal of that venture rests in part on the perception that Labour is a lost cause.
Starmer’s latest sanctions against dissent tend to make that case. He has flung down the gauntlet — the left in the PLP, the affiliated unions and the membership must pick it up.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/purge-dissenting-mps-sign-starmers-weakness
Unite to forge ‘authentic voice for the working class’ if it quits Labour
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unite-forge-authentic-voice-working-class-if-it-quits-labour
Sharon Graham speaks at the Durham Miners’ Gala, July 13, 2025Durham Miners’ Gala 2025
UNITE will forge an “authentic voice for the working class” if it votes to disaffiliate from Labour for attacking striking Birmingham bin workers, general secretary Sharon Graham has told the 139th Durham Miners’ Gala.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s name was booed by the crowd as Ms Graham chanted “shame on you” over her handling of the long-running strikes, as former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he agreed with her “absolutely.”
Delegates at Labour’s biggest union backer voted to rethink their relationship with the party and suspend Ms Rayner at their policy conference last week.
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The Unite conference also called for the recognition of the state of Palestine and vowed to support “worker-led campaigns to boycott the handling of Israeli goods and services in their workplaces and campaigns for divestment from Israeli companies in their workplaces and the wider economy.”
Mr Corbyn hailed the decision as “historically important because we will stop the supply of weapons to the Israeli Defence Forces to kill people in Gaza.”
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Following attacks from Durham Reform councillors over not being invited to the gala’s platform, Durham Miners’ Association chairman Stephen Guy told the Morning Star that the local Labour MP and Israel supporter Luke Akehurst wasn’t invited either.
“The message is the same, whether you are Labour or Reform, if you don’t share our values or beliefs you don’t get an invite. We have Labour MPs here today on the platform and they’ve been selected because they share our values,” he said.
