Conservatives have been the biggest loser in the local council elections in Britain held on last Thursday but it is the looming threat perception of ultra-rightist forces taking control of the destiny of the Britons that has forced the Labour leaders and its cadres to rebel against their leader Prime Minister Keir Starmer and seek his removal from the office.
Long before the final D-day, it had become clear that Nikel Farage’s far right Reform Party UK would sweep the local council elections, relegate the Tories and pose a serious existential threat to the Labour Party. Though the Tories are in a introspective mood, the Labour supporters and leaders have started openly accusing Starmer of being incompetent to comprehend the emerging political scenario. Labour losing the parliamentary seat to reform UK has triggered a massive revolt in the Labour Party and its leaders have come out in public with the demand that Starmer must make way for another leader and rehabilitate Jeremy Corbyn and others in the Party.
For Conservatives, Farage’s party would serve the purpose of the alternate forum. But it is not the case with Labour. Its leaders have been scared of the emergence of Farage as the new face of the rightist forces since the 2024 parliamentary election. But it is the victory of Reform Party UK at the recently held Local councils and parliamentary election that has shaken the trust of the Labour leaders into the political acumen of Starmer. They find him more of the nature of liability. His style of functioning has also come under scanner and the Labour leaders have started finding the traces of authoritarianism in him.
These leaders point out that notwithstanding recent surveys and studies showing a severe decline in his image and credibility, Starmer was unwilling to amend his style of functioning. His approach to the economic problems is more akin to the rightist leaders than of progressive and leftist leaders committed to the well being of the working class and middle class.
Ever since Starmer took over the office of prime minister, Labour has been losing support. Labour supporters and leaders continued to nurse the feeling that he would change and amend his working style. But it proved to be elusive. The workers and middle-class Britons started keeping away from the general activities of the Labour Party. They were quite aggrieved at the machination of Starmer to keep Corbyn out of the policy and decision-making process. They strongly feel that presence of Corbyn would have helped the Labour Party in effectively fighting the far right Reform UK.
Starmer had come to power by sidelining Corbyn. But the working class support base for Corbyn did not approve of his machinations. They were too willing to split the party and keep afloat their ideological flag. But it was at the persuasion of Corbyn, the Left socialists continued to support Starmer. Since the 2024 elections the Left members of the Labour Party were apprehensive of Starmer transforming the basic ideological commitment and character of the party.
After the results were announced a slogan “Bring back ‘persecuted’ Corbyn” has been echoing in the party circle. Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite the Union, the largest affiliate and a major donor to labour had already accused Starmer of a “witch hunt” over Jeremy Corbyn. His supporters and allies have stepped up the demand for his reinstatement. They have started accusing Starmer of hatching a conspiracy to persecute Corbyn. It is also alleged that alleged remarks of Corbyn as being anti-Semitism were being blown out of proportion. McCluskey articulates the general feelings of the members and leaders: “It looks to me very much like a witch-hunt and a persecution of a decent man.” It is also alleged that Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which came out with the report against Corbyn to allegations of anti-Semitism during his tenure as leader, did not adopt a balanced approach to him.
Role of EHRC becomes more suspect as Starmer basically used its report to punish and humiliate Corbyn. The supporters of Corbyn strongly hold the view that since it was a false allegation, Corbyn had “refused to accept the findings of the EHRC report, refused to apologise for his actions and refused to take any responsibility”. The EHRC’s report found Labour had broken the law over its handling of anti-Jewish racism complaints by party members during Mr Corbyn’s tenure.
The Labour insiders maintain that it was “continued persecution of Jeremy Corbyn, a politician who inspired millions, by a leadership capitulating to external pressure on party procedures risks destroying the unity and integrity of the party” that has been primarily responsible for losing its support base and its middle-class supporters shifting their allegiance to Farage’s party. The observation of former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, has proved to be prophetic. Even before 2024 election, he had predicted “Keir’s decision was just plain wrong and would cause more division and disunity in the party”.
It is the vulnerability of Starmer to withstand the rightist attack, that prompted Elon Musk to plan ouster of Keir Starmer from the office of prime minister before the next general election. It is also rumoured that enthused with the desertion of the party by the centrist elements, particularly the middle class and those belonging to the white colour job, Trump has also been exploring the mechanism with the help of Reform UK, to destabilise the UK Labour government. Musk has also been striving hard to engineer a major defection from Tories to Reform UK of Farage.
Reform UK has been enjoying a surge in support in recent months, with opinion polls suggesting 22 per cent of the public back the party, up from 14 per cent at the time of the July 2024 election. It is a skewed notion that Britain’s Two-Party Political System is crumbling. No. this is not the truth. Fact is, Britain is witnessing emergence of a very strong rightist force, which would be more fierce than the Conservatives.. This force is undoubtedly being led by the Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform U.K. the intensity of its popularity could be gauged from the simple fact that while it registered a victory in a parliamentary special election it also won hundreds of seats in English municipalities, first taste of power in the lower tiers of government.
Significantly, according to Claire Ainsley, a former policy director for Starmer, the results also reflected a breakdown of traditional class loyalties among voters, the increasing pull of nationalist politics and growing support for the centrist Liberal Democrats, the Greens and independent candidates. “We have been seeing the fragmentation of society and that has flowed through to our politics,” said Ainsley.
Middle class nurses the feeling that that Starmer is operating more like a authoritarian ruler who does not have a people oriented economic policy. He has not been focusing on how to boost living standards. He has systematically been ignoring the calls from backbench Labour MPs to take a tougher stance on migration and crime amid rise of Reform UK, a right wing populist party. The experts hold that the election results underline that Labour had lost the support of 40% of voters who put Starmer into Downing Street last year.
Almost half (46%) of those switching away were economically insecure, compared with 31% who were in a more financially stable position. It also showed how people aged 35-49 were, for the first time, most likely to be part of this group, and were more likely to be volatile in their political support. A new poll for the public affairs firm Apella Advisors, conducted by Find Out Now, found the threat of drifting progressive voters was significant. Among Labour 2024 voters, 43% said they would be likely to consider voting Green and 40% Lib Dems. Just 9% said they could consider voting Reform.
Labour leaders do not hesitate in saying: “We won the large majority at the last election essentially based on a split on the right. At the moment that split is disappearing. If we lose voters to Reform in that situation we will lose lot of seats. The 2029 election will witness an easy walk for Reform UK”. Nonetheless the left Labour MPs publicly criticised Starmer and said his government’s agenda was to blame for the defeat. Diane Abbott, the veteran Labour leftwinger and longest-serving female MP in the Commons, said on X: “Labour leadership saying the party will go further and faster in the same direction. They don’t seem to understand that, it is our current direction that is the problem.” (IPA Service)
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