- Post author:dizzy
- Post published:30 January 2026
- Post category:crap pretend Labour/Labour Party/politics/Reform 2025 Ltd (Reform UK)
- Post comments:0 Comments
Morning Star Editorial: Unison’s Andrea Egan speaks truth to power
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unisons-andrea-egan-speaks-truth-power
Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech during the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool, September 30, 2025NEW Unison general secretary Andrea Egan has done a service to the entire labour movement. Barely a week in office, she has spelt out exactly what is wrong with the Starmer government, and what needs to change.
We make no apology for quoting her words, written for Tribune, extensively. First the crisis: “The first far-right government in our history is a very real prospect. Nigel Farage in power would be the biggest triumph for the enemies of the working class since his idol Margaret Thatcher took office…
“It would be a global victory for a billionaire-backed ethnonationalist project represented by the administration of Donald Trump…for every worker, active trade unionist or anyone who wants to live in an open and democratic society, the political stakes of the coming months and years are potentially existential. We are staring down the barrel of a historically devastating offensive against our class.”
Then, the blame: “From witnessing the recent behaviour of Labour’s ruling faction, you wouldn’t know it. Spearheaded from Downing Street, this narrow Westminster grouping often gives the impression it would rather hand the country over to Farage and put the labour movement’s survival on the line than consider any change in policy direction or lose the slightest control over the party machine.”
Egan slams the “stitch-up” which blocked Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election, with the reasons offered “an insult to the intelligence.”
Then the warning: “Trade unions will not tolerate this self-destructive approach any longer. The costs are simply too high, and it is our members — our whole movement — who will pay the price.
“Labour’s rotten internal culture is a significant cause of its failure to deliver for workers while in government, which in turn drives its historic unpopularity and lays the ground for the far right.
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Original article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unisons-andrea-egan-speaks-truth-power
Blocking Burnham, Starmer’s cowardly control-freaks are wrecking their own party
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (left) and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, during a meeting with English regional mayors, at No 10 Downing Street in Westminster, central London, July 9, 2024IT’S a truism that the Labour right would rather see the party lose than win from the left.
But the Starmer clique’s decision to bar Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham from contesting the Gorton & Denton by-election shows paranoid factionalism on another level.
Burnham is not even on the socialist left of the party: this is an act of cowardice by a PM who fears a challenge to his leadership, and is prepared to risk a Labour seat falling to Reform UK rather than face him.
For Burnham was certainly the party’s best bet for winning the by-election, in a seat where the context of the last MP’s departure — Andrew Gwynne was embroiled in a scandal over expletive-laden text messages telling elderly constituents he hoped they would “croak” before long — can only add to the stench of out-of-touch arrogance that suffuses Labour.
Burnham is popular, a vanishingly rare quality among Labour politicians now. This fact will not be lost on MPs concluding that Starmer needs to go if the party is to have a hope of avoiding electoral annihilation.
The excuse given for his exclusion — that an early mayoral election to replace him would be inconvenient and costly — hardly matters. Not one person will believe it.
After all Starmer has form: stitch-ups are his stock in trade. Unlike former leaders of the Labour right like Tony Blair — or possible future ones like Wes Streeting — he has no political vision giving him confidence to seek to persuade people of his case. He lied his way to the leadership then excluded its left through expulsions and bans on debate.
He imposes candidates on local parties, and shows total indifference to the local standing of the candidates he blocks: another popular then Labour mayor, Jamie Driscoll, was barred from the shortlist for his own enlarged mayoralty when Labour were still in opposition.
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‘Break with Trump before world is embroiled in conflict for oil and empire’
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/break-trump-world-embroiled-conflict-oil-and-empire
US President Donald Trump speaks to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, January 6, 2026, in WashingtonCampaigners call on public to join protests across the country demanding Starmer stands up to the far-right US president
PEACE campaigners have warned Sir Keir Starmer to break with US President Donald Trump now before Britain is embroiled in a “full-scale conflict” over “oil and empire” as Britons join protests around the country on Saturday.
The Prime Minister’s tepid reaction to the US attack on Venezuela and its abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores has already driven thousands out onto the streets this week.
Even more are expected this weekend at demonstrations in urban centres across the country on Saturday, including outside Downing Street at 1pm on and the US consulate in Edinburgh at 11am.
Campaigners called on the public to join them in keeping pressure on the government after the Labour leader this week said siding with Europe over the US would be a mistake in the wake of further US military threats on Greenland.
His reactions prompted further fury from activists, as the former human rights barrister also refused to say whether the US operations in Venezuela broke international law at PMQs.
Stop the War Coalition (StWC) convener Lindsey German told the Morning Star: “The British government should break with Trump and his far-right racist warmongering policies now before the world is embroiled in a full scale conflict for oil and empire.
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/break-trump-world-embroiled-conflict-oil-and-empire
