(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . General election: Labour’s left-wing purges may affect the party in government [1] [] Date: 2024-06 When the election campaign began, Labour had a comfortable lead in the polls and looked set for government – yet all was not well within the party. The mood was flat in many constituencies, with surprisingly little enthusiasm at the prospect of government despite 14 years in opposition. This was exacerbated by anger at Labour’s official stance on Gaza and continuing support for the Israeli government, a mood extending to much of the party’s left wing, as well as the leadership’s determination to clamp down on internal dissent. Many of the 30 or so socialist-leaning Labour MPs had been keeping their heads down for months amid indications from multiple sources that there was a plan to purge progressive MPs during the quiet summer months ahead of a presumed November election. Given that low mood at the start of the six-week campaign, how is Labour faring now that we’re halfway through? While Rishi Sunak scuppered any plan for summer deselections, Keir Starmer’s leadership did indeed use the start of the campaign to get rid of some candidates. With former leader Jeremy Corbyn having already been deselected, Starmer’s team tried to get rid of his ally, Diane Abbott – though the angry reaction from her supporters led to a U-turn. Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now Next was Lloyd Russell-Moyle, previously the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown. An eight-year-old complaint, whose nature has not been made public, was made against Russell-Moyle soon after the election was called. Because there was no time to investigate before the candidacy deadlines, he was suddenly deselected. Russell-Moyle has said he disputes the “false” allegation, adding: “I believe it was designed to disrupt this election.” Then there is Faiza Shaheen, the Labour candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, who was also suddenly deselected after the election was called. Shaheen is an economist specialising in economic inequality, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, and widely regarded as a leading specialist in the field. She is just the kind of person Labour needs in its ranks given the widening wealth-poverty divide in Britain. Instead, she is out, and the circumstances of her deselection have caused much local controversy, with many local people resigning from the Labour Party as a result. Dissatisfaction with Labour just as it may be on the brink of power goes deeper than these individual controversies. Last month’s local election results saw scores of independent left-wing candidates stand – mostly on platforms of support for Palestine – enough of whom were elected to deprive Labour of overall control of two large metropolitan councils, Oldham in Greater Manchester and Kirklees in West Yorkshire. Independent candidates usually have a much tougher task winning at general elections than local ones but a few shock results should not be ruled out – particularly given well over 400 independents are standing, three times the number at the last election. The added problem for Starmer is that the unease among many Labour supporters extends beyond the response to the carnage in Gaza to the many examples of Labour changing its policies. Most prominent are the watering down of previous climate commitments and the refusal to recognise the fundamental injustices of neoliberalism as we move even further into the era of runaway wealth. Much of the election rhetoric so far has been about avoiding tax increases, despite independent analysts repeatedly pointing to the multiple crises across the public sector. There are issues in health, education, housing, child poverty and many other elements of life that would cost tens of billions of pounds a year to deal with adequately. This seems a huge figure but isn’t when compared with the levels of wealth accumulated over the 40 years of the neoliberal transition. Last month’s Sunday Times Rich List is a salutary reminder, with the top five wealthiest people in the UK alone possessing £135bn. The richest 350 individuals and families together have £795bn, greater than the total GDP of Poland. Given the appallingly bad performance of the Tory party in the campaign so far, these issues may not matter much. Labour may well still be on course for a majority of 150 seats or more. If that is achieved, though, there will be many hundreds of thousands if not millions of dissatisfied supporters after the election who no longer see the party as relevant to them. If Labour runs into serious economic difficulties in government, perhaps even in its first year, then dissatisfaction among its own supporters will increase. But in Parliament, there will be a dearth of backbenchers willing to speak up for alternative policies – and it is then that the likes of Shaheen will be much missed. Prediction at a time of such uncertainty is especially risky but in this case, there will likely be a handful of MPs pressing a more progressive agenda. These may be drawn from the ranks of the socialist-leaning MPs who escaped the purge or members of the new intake who either slipped through the selection net or came to develop their own thinking once elected. They will be supported by a large number of disenfranchised Labour voters and many others. Their challenge will be to develop and promote policies appropriate to a troubled state facing a persistent socio-economic divide in a global system facing climate breakdown. It will be a time for much new thinking – daunting and challenging, yet in a country that still has potential for wise and effective governance. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-left-wing-purges-affect-government-keir-starmer-jeremy-corbyn-faiza-shaheen/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/