Last night, after suffering humiliating defeats in the elections, Starmer, having said he would take responsibility for them, showed exactly what that means from the mouth of an authoritarian - he sacked Angela Rayner from her post as Party Chair, and Election Coordinator. He couldn't sack her from the position of Deputy Leader, as that's an elected post, but, given the extent of the scapegoating, you can't help think he would have done if he could. But, Rayner has merely reaped where she sowed. Its only weeks ago that, in support of Starmer's undemocratic and authoritarian party regime, she declared that they would expel thousands of members, if that was what was required for the party to be made safe once more for the establishment. When they came for her, there was no one left to defend her, you might say.
Except, there was. A few lone centrist voices, like Andy Burnham, chirped up to say they could not agree to her sacking. For now, it looks like Starmer has realised he dropped yet another large bollock, and efforts are being made to claim it was not a sacking but a reshuffle. Yeah, right! According to LabourList, that's not what Rayner's friends are saying, and, if so, why was it immediately tied in with Starmer's comments about him taking immediate responsibility for the disaster, and why, when the media was carrying the story last night, didn't Starmer come out to disclaim it? Why is it only today that the offer of some unknown new job has been touted?
But, of course, its not just Rayner for the chop. Starmer is using the opportunity of his self-inflicted electoral disaster to shift the party even further and faster to the Right. Even centrists like Dodds and Ashworth are likely to be demoted or chopped altogether. In come the hard Right, openly pro-Capitalist elements, and those already there, who dominate the Shadow Cabinet, are to be promoted further. All of those that are indistinguishable from the Tories are to become the face of Starmer's New Labour, thereby, ensuring that the disasters of last Thursday are repeated and magnified, in the months and elections to come.
They do not seem to realise, or perhaps they do, but their devotion to the cause of the bourgeoisie is so great they don't care, as they march forward to a destruction of Labour, that the reason they lost so many seats across the country, including Hartlepool, was not because of being too left-wing - the idea of which, given the lack of any politics whatever, and their continual spooning up to any Tory or reactionary idea, is laughable - or too anti-Brexit, but the opposite. Hartlepool, after all was the seat of the very pro-EU, Peter Mandelson for years, and Labour's vote there increased by 50%, in 2017, under Corbyn, compared to 2015.
The reason Labour went backwards, in many of these places, is that, in order to win, it is even more dependent upon progressive Labour voters coming out to vote, and on winning over progressive Liberal and Green voters. In 2017, Labour, under Corbyn, secured 21,000 votes, or 52.5% of the vote, the turnout itself up by 2,500 votes compared to 2015, as Labour enthused these new voters to turn out. That 21,000 vote, that Corbyn's Labour secured in 2017, would have seen Labour romp home, last week, with a majority of nearly 6,000!!! Labour's 52.5% of the vote, in 2017, easily outstripped the combined Tory/UKIP share of just 45%. Without those progressive Labour voters turning out to vote Labour, in those old "red wall" seats, Labour has no chance of winning in them, given their already marginal nature. Walking away from Labour's progressive positions, both in terms of the more radical economic policies, but also of its former opposition to Brexit, is to cut its own throat in those seats, as well as to undermine its positions elsewhere in the country, as was seen in the increase in support for Greens, for example.
The Liberals, having also abandoned their opposition to Brexit, have also suffered in the same way. They are being supplanted as the natural party of the progressive middle class by the Greens, who moved forward in greater proportion to the backward movement of Labour and Liberals. The Liberals have given up trying to compete with a rapidly rightward moving New Labour Party, and are openly saying that their target is the Tories, signalling that they are moving back to their old Old Orange Book, free market positions, which leaves all of their progressive middle class voters open to be harvested by the Greens. But, that is bad news for Labour too, because, as the Greens advance, at the expense of Liberals, Labour, and even some Tories, so they begin to put on the weight that makes them credible candidates in an increasing number of contests. The more that happens the greater their gravitational pull to disaffected progressive Labour voters, and also members.
Starmer is destroying Labour. He must be stopped, before the damage he causes is too great.
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