Scunthorpe

Morning Star Editorial: Starmer may fall, but the right’s grip on Labour won’t be broken from within

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-may-fall-rights-grip-labour-wont-be-broken-within

 Prime Minister Keir Starmer departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, November 12, 2025

IF KEIR STARMER intended to stave off a leadership challenge by advertising his readiness to fight one, he has miscalculated.

All his intervention has done is placed the question of his leadership at the top of MPs’ minds.

Perhaps identifying Wes Streeting as a possible challenger was intended to frighten the left away from triggering a contest — since Streeting is even further right than Starmer.

In practice it simply showcases the Prime Minister’s insecurity and the toxic culture Streeting accurately describes in Downing Street — where the government briefs against its own, and a leadership that has always relied on bans and expulsions to maintain authority descends into a “circular firing squad,” to use the ever eloquent Barry Gardiner’s phrase. Unlike Starmer, MPs might reflect, Streeting has never pretended to be on the left and as a Blairite true believer might at least try to govern through persuasion rather than fear.

Nobody should fear challenging Starmer: his government is as inept as it is cruel and is paving the way for a far-right Reform UK regime.

But Streeting is no solution. The Health Secretary would be a cosmetic change, no more: he’s wedded to the same policies of privatisation and cuts that have wrecked our public services and national infrastructure. Starmer loyalists point to the long death agony of the last Tory government as evidence that switching leader doesn’t help — and it won’t, without dramatic changes in Labour policy.

And that’s a problem. Starmer’s leadership exists to prevent change, not deliver it: its whole mission has been the destruction of Corbynism and the threat of a socialist-led Labour Party. That project was endorsed by the overwhelming majority of Labour MPs even before last year’s election brought in cohorts of carefully vetted conformists.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-may-fall-rights-grip-labour-wont-be-broken-within

Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Starmer may fall, but the right’s grip on Labour won’t be broken from within

Corbyn says it’s ‘just the beginning’ as new party overtakes Labour amid surging youth support

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/corbyn-says-its-just-beginning-new-party-overtakes-labour-amid-surging-youth-support

 Jeremy Corbyn (second left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South (second right) on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022

JEREMY CORBYN vowed “this is just the beginning” today after half a million people signed up to his new political party in three days amid a surge in support for the former Labour leader among 18-24 year-olds.

Mr Corbyn, who launched the new left party with fellow ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana on Thursday, said: “For too long, people have been denied a real political choice. Not anymore.

“Half a million people have already signed up, but this is just the beginning. We are an unstoppable movement for equality, democracy and peace — and we are never, ever going away.”

The half-a-million mark was reached on Sunday and is expected to continue to climb.

It is already well over the Labour Party’s reportedly “haemorrhaging” latest membership figures, which stood at 309,000 in February.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/corbyn-says-its-just-beginning-new-party-overtakes-labour-amid-surging-youth-support

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir "I support Zionism without Qualification" Starmer supporting genocide.
Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.

Continue ReadingCorbyn says it’s ‘just the beginning’ as new party overtakes Labour amid surging youth support

Morning Star Editorial: Purge of dissenting MPs is a sign of Starmer’s weakness

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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

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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

Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Purge of dissenting MPs is a sign of Starmer’s weakness

Labour could face biggest rebellion since Iraq war as MPs vote on welfare cuts

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-could-face-biggest-rebellion-iraq-war-mps-vote-welfare-cuts

 Members of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) protest in Leeds. Photo: Neil Terry Photography

… Keir Starmer could face the biggest parliamentary revolt since the Iraq war as MPs vote on welfare cuts the government’s own figures say will push 150,000 into poverty by 2030 tomorrow.

No 10 was accused of “total desperation” as furious Labour rebels vowed to vote down the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Bill.

Celebrities joined disabled activists as they staged protests outside Parliament and across the country today against the plans to create a “two-tier” welfare system.

Disabled People Against Cuts co-founder Linda Burnip told the Morning Star: “We are very much against the paltry concessions that have been made which actually don’t seem to going to protect anyone. 

“It smacks to me of total desperation, they are just flopping around changing things from one day to another.

“We are obviously not being bought off by the concessions and protests will continue and we will make sure that any Labour MPs that vote in favour of this Bill don’t get back into the Parliament at the next election.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-could-face-biggest-rebellion-iraq-war-mps-vote-welfare-cuts

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Continue ReadingLabour could face biggest rebellion since Iraq war as MPs vote on welfare cuts