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Morning Star Editorial: Labour Together is key to the Mandelson scandal

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-together-key-mandelson-scandal

 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) and then British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, February 27, 2025

LABOUR MP Ian Byrne got to the heart of the Mandelson crisis in the Commons on Wednesday. Namely, he made the point that it is in fact a Mandelson-McSweeney-Labour Together scandal and the measures taken by the government in the wake of the New Labour grandee’s disgrace only scratch the surface of what is needed.

Byrne told MPs that the row over Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to Washington in December 2024 “was not just a catastrophic error of judgment that has caused profound damage to this government’s reputation.

“It was the result of a clique at the top of the party, as we have seen with the Morgan McSweeney and Labour Together scandal, which I and colleagues … have called on the Prime Minister and the general secretary of the Labour Party to launch an independent investigation into.”

Socialist Campaign Group secretary Richard Burgon underlined the point, asking how Mandelson was even considered for the Washington job. 

“It is because it suited the interests of a tiny faction in the Labour Party, funded by big business, which wanted Mandelson at the heart of things in order to shift a Labour government away from the agenda that a real Labour government should have. 

“That is why Mandelson was popular with these people … and that is why, despite his despicable character, despite his greed and his avarice, he was put in that position.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-together-key-mandelson-scandal

Keir Starmer discusses the UK Labour Party's tradion of excusing and protecting child rapists.
Keir Starmer discusses the UK Labour Party’s tradion of excusing and protecting child rapists.

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Labour Together is key to the Mandelson scandal

Labour-supporting Muslims tell Starmer to step down

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/labour-supporting-muslims-tell-starmer-to-quit

Thousands sign letter of no confidence as leader continues to back Israeli war crimes

Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

LABOUR-supporting Muslims told Sir Keir Starmer to quit today as the row over the Labour leader’s backing for Israeli war crimes deepened with more councillors leaving the party.

Thousands of British Muslims across society signed an open letter telling Sir Keir that they had lost confidence in his leadership after he backed Israel cutting off food, water and power to Palestinians in Gaza, in breach of international law.

In another blow to the Starmer leadership, Labour MPs backed a Commons motion tabled by Socialist Campaign Group secretary Richard Burgon expressing “deep alarm at the Israeli military bombardment and total siege of Gaza and the resulting deaths and suffering,” and calling for an immediate ceasefire and an “end to the total siege of Gaza.”

Sir Keir tried to slither back onto the high ground today, using Prime Minister’s Questions to partially recalibrate Labour’s position.

He said that “food, fuel and water must get into Gaza immediately” — the very things he had endorsed the Israeli government cutting off.

But neither he nor PM Rishi Sunak backed calls for a ceasefire, instead emphasising Israel’s “right to defend itself” through continuing attacks on Gaza “within international law.”

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Labour is facing large-scale resignations among councillors irate about Sir Keir’s pro-war crimes stance and the ban on attending solidarity marches.

Further departures were reported today in London, Cambridge, Gloucester and Gedling in Nottinghamshire, joining colleagues in Manchester, Stroud and Oxford who quit earlier.

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A Labour official, believed to be a member of the party’s executive, has described these councillors as “fleas” to be shaken off.

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/labour-supporting-muslims-tell-starmer-to-quit

Continue ReadingLabour-supporting Muslims tell Starmer to step down

Keir Starmer’s reshuffle moves Labour further away from its core values

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/keir-starmers-reshuffle-moves-labour-further-away-from-its-core-values/

Starmer should be looking to Clement Atlee for inspiration, not Tony Blair

Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at World Economic Forum, Davos.
Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at World Economic Forum, Davos.

With the Government on the rack amidst the austerity-fuelled school building crisis, yesterday’s shadow cabinet reshuffle gave Keir Starmer one final chance to live up to his leadership pledges: to unite the Labour Party and offer the country a transformative programme, one which is more urgent and popular than ever in the Tories’ broken Britain. Sadly, what we got, as commentators have concluded, was yet another shift to the Right. 

Nowhere was this clearer than in moves against the soft left, particularly Lisa Nandy, who was demoted for the second time, now to shadow an international development ministry which doesn’t even exist. Preet Gill, in turn, left the shadow cabinet, while Nick Thomas-Symonds faced another demotion, to Shadow Minister without Portfolio. Rosena Allin-Khan left the Shadow Cabinet after Starmer told her he did “not see a space for a mental health portfolio in a Labour Cabinet”, despite having herself sat in the shadow cabinet in such a role

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Meanwhile, the scrapping of the dedicated Shadow Development brief means that Starmer’s pledge to re-establish the department abolished by Boris Johnson will be added to his long list of broken promises. Nor will there be a dedicated employment rights role, the first time in nearly half a decade that Labour’s Shadow Cabinet has not contained such a role; big business has a dedicated secretary of state, but workers don’t. The loss of these roles signals danger for progressive politics.

Of course, it goes without saying that there were no promotions for members of the Socialist Campaign Group, who are uniformly excluded from the Shadow Cabinet. How far we are from the days when Starmer promised to build on Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity agenda and ‘end factionalism’. 

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/keir-starmers-reshuffle-moves-labour-further-away-from-its-core-values/

Continue ReadingKeir Starmer’s reshuffle moves Labour further away from its core values