Labour MPs angered as Keir Starmer ignores calls for change of course

39 comments

1. Reasonable to be honest.

   Labour have been in 9? Months.

   Keir is not a reactionary.

2. Keith is the change of course. Labour are Tories now. Might as well ask the pope to stop shitting in the woods.

3. I mean, obviously he’s going to change course. That said, if he stays on course people would be pissed about that too. He can’t win, nor should he. If Reform’s rise forces the parties to make some long-term adult decisions instead of short-term political gains (if even that), then fine. Let’s go.

4. He sabotaged Corbyn over less lol, sooner Labour join the conservatives in the grave (political grave not literal one before a raging centrist reports for me violence again lol) the better, Keith just has to be the most uninspiring unlikeable middle management type cunt there is.

5. Maybe he’s not just trying to appease people who can never be appeased, maybe he’s simply just like them. 

   As a lot of people repeatedly pointed out as they were having fingers wagged at them for not blindly giving their vote to Labour last year. 

6. The only sensible course now would be a swing to the left, and implementing actual changes to policy. Chasing Reform’s support is a fallacy, because they want gas chambers and public execution, and who wants a Labour party who does that? So the only course to act like an actual alternative, not ‘Diet Reform.’ But he won’t, I expect. Because he’s in too many pockets to make any meaningful changes.

7. He is starting to look bought by the same people who bought reform

8. I’d like them to change but the local elections happened about 1 day ago so perhaps not unreasonable not to make a screeching change of course overnight

9. The biggest issue was labour’s base not being inspired to get out and vote – same as what got Trump in the second time.

   Council elections are pretty inconsequential. I wonder if the turnout would be different for a general election.

   Starmer does need to appeal to his own base and not try to out Tory/reform the right wing because he’ll never do it.

   If labour can stop Reform from taking it’s traditionally red seats then it’s likely we’ll see a Labour/Lib Dem coalition. At least that’s what I’ll keep telling myself

10. I think non front bench Labour MPs don’t realise the level of incompetence in Labour Party leadership.

    There are no real ideas or vision. Everything is dictated by focus groups, Blairite think tanks (TBI) and advisors (Morgan McSweeney – Shadow Prime Minister).

    These stakeholders all have the same thing in common – they’re affluent, middle class and only really care about preserving the status quo.

    Nothing will change – Labour and Keir will keep churning out the same policies leading to managed decline. They may change leadership a couple of times, but it won’t help.

11. His task is simple. Build mores houses, drastically lower immigration whilst increasing mass deportation and reduce wealth inequality.

12. Honestly it doesn’t matter anymore. This country is fucked because the people are fucked. Starmer is basically just warming the seat for Farage at this point because absolute morons think that kicking out or oppressing anyone who looks or acts different will solve all their problems.

13. Reform dominant parliament and Prime Minister speedrun any %

14. No guys, we should keep doing the same thing that got us in this position in the first place trust me.

15. Labour is still clueless that they need to solve the problem with the boats. They are either ignorant or an accomplice of human trafficking.

16. The absolute worst response Labour could do here is do what the Tories did and say “we just need to get on with delivering…”

    You need a bigger vision, a significant change, to combat the populist fantasy vision on the other side. People have to see things getting better for themselves.

17. Starmer is a Tory masquerading as a liberal. No wonder Trump likes him

18. If he don’t change then he won’t be PM for long or he’ll lose badly in 29’ election !

19. Its such classic UK politics to see people arguing about a change of course, anger at no course change, or discussing if they just need to follow the course faster with absolutely no details or discussion on what that change would be.

    Looking forward to hearing about ‘growth’ for the next few weeks

20. People wanted stability and longer term planning after the chaos of the Tories. That’s exactly what I’d describe the government as doing, but that’s not exciting enough apparently.

    Back to chaos it is.

21. We are not American, let’s not overreact to someone who hasn’t been in office for a year. Countrywide policies and standard of living don’t come back quick. Let’s avoid making the same mistakes our cousins across the pond have done, with being purely reactionary and baiting on media titles

22. To the people saying “They need more time” or “childish to think they can turn it around in under a year” – yes, we know that! 

    It’s the direction of travel that’s so concerning. Particularly the chancellor. She seems to have handcuffed herself with her fiscal rules, which she somehow thinks are physical laws and not just made up and easily changed. 

    Private sector investment is not about to put growth back into the economy and raise all our standards of living, especially with the brakes firmly on public investment. Bills are going up, as is council tax, and housing will continue getting more expensive (and with it the rent). 

    Voters aren’t going to watch their living standards fall then gift Labour another term in office. 

23. Unfortunately Keir Starmer doesn’t have a message that differentiates him from the Tories besides “we’re more competent because…. Because we just are ok?” There seems to be very little ideologically different between them.

    Some concrete steps he needs to take now are:

    1. Get serious on illegal immigration. It’s not nice but something really does need to be done and people are getting fed up. Find a British Overseas Territory or remote Scottish island and use it as an immigration processing centre (a la Rwanda but hopefully a lot cheaper). Amend the HRA so denied asylum seekers cannot rely on it to remain in the UK. At the same time create easier legal routes for legitimate refugees such as for example a mobile app to allow people to apply before coming. Fast track existing asylum claims by delaying cases in other courts to get through the backlog.

    2. Pass an emergency house building act to give central government power to approve housing projects without the involvement of local councils. More houses = cheaper prices and rents = more money in the pockets of working people. Housing is most people’s single biggest expense every month and reducing this expense will make a huge difference. However this comes with the caveat that new housing developments need medical facilities, shops, pubs etc built into it. Build communities, not just tacked-on housing developments.

    3. Scrap the unsustainable triple lock and tie state pension increases to wage increases only. If people aren’t earning more, they shouldn’t pay more towards the state pension. This unpopular but necessary decision should be taken now so hopefully people forget about it by the next election.

    4. Really start making the case for investment in clean energy. Nuclear should be at the forefront of this. Clean energy is better for the planet and actually cheaper and more should be made of this.

    5. On foreign policy, stop being so meek and stand up to bullies, not just Putin and Xi but Trump and Netanyahu as well. Primary focus should be a FTA with the EU who are the most ideologically aligned with us right now.

24. The second he mentioned “rising wages” in his list of achievements since taking power I couldn’t help but laugh. He really REALLY didn’t get it.

    Labour are on for a hammering but not an extinction like the Tories. That’s more down to the hard left being so fractured politically more than anything.

25. I’m actually quite concerned that instead of seeing this last set of council elections as a warning, he’ll see it as a suggest course and we’re about to go even further right as this twat convinces himself and his cronies that courting reform voters is “what the people want” rather than trying to win back the left.

    I genuinely feel like we’re about to swing far more into authoritarianism and i’m genuinely scared.

26. **This site is pay to accept cookies – here’s the article to save you the extortion**

    LABOUR left-wingers are demanding a change of course from party leadership after a poor result at the English local elections.

    The party has lost more than 164 councillors this far, taking them to just 82 seats among those contested on Thursday. At the time of writing, 19 out of 23 councils had declared.

    Meanwhile Reform and the LibDems have surged ahead – securing 595 and 356 councillors respectively.

    There were reports of voters across England being particularly angered by UK Government decisions to cut PIP, the Winter Fuel Payment and put up National Insurance employer contributions.

    ADVERTISING

    But in the wake of the bad result, Keir Starmer did not suggest there would be a change of course for Labour.

    READ MORE: Runcorn by-election signals key opportunity for SNP and indy movement

    “What I want to say is, my response is we get it,” the Prime Minister said. “We were elected in last year to bring about change.”

    ADVERTISING

    He added that Labour have “started that work” with changes like reductions in NHS waiting lists, and added: “I am determined that we will go further and faster on the change that people want to see.”

    Online, Labour veteran Diane Abbott expressed her frustrations. “Labour leadership saying the party will go further and faster in the same direction,” she noted. “They don’t seem to understand that, it is our current direction that is the problem.”

    Mary Kelly Foy (below), the MP for Durham – which saw its historically Labour-run council go to Reform – said it wasn’t too late for a different approach.

    “The results in County Durham were completely avoidable, but what we’ve seen today is a direct result of the party leadership’s political choices.”

    She went on: “It is not a sign of weakness, nor is it too late for the Government to change direction.

    “Many people told me on the doorstep this week that they did not leave the Labour Party, but the party left them. That is heart breaking to hear in the Red Wall. I’ll be making my feelings known to the party leadership again, as a matter of urgency.

    ADVERTISING

    “This cannot, and must not, continue.”

    Former shadow chancellor and fellow long-time Labour MP John McDonnell told BBC Radio 4: “People are just saying these are things no Labour government should be doing, and it’s not, it isn’t left or right or middle of the road, it’s just ensuring that actually you respond to people’s needs, and it is about investing in public services. But you don’t raise the funds for that investment by cutting benefits and continuing on with austerity.”

    Emma Lewell, another long-serving MP who has represented South Shields in north-east England since 2013, added her voice to the calls for a “change of plan”.

    On X, she wrote: “Trust matters. If you promise people that you will be focused on serving the public and then do not listen to them, do not expect them to vote for you.

    “Withdrawal of winter fuel, denial of compensation for the Waspi women, and proposed disability cuts, have all broken that trust.”

    READ MORE: SNP hit out at Reform election gains in England

    She added: “It is tone deaf to keep repeating we will move further and faster on our plan for change.

    “What is needed is a change of plan.”

    After final results were in from 16 of the 23 English councils holding elections, Reform had almost 500 councillors, after gaining 476 seats, with the Liberal Democrats in second place with 237, up 86.

    The Tories had 199 seats, down 411, and Labour 56, after losing 137 seats, leaving Sir Keir Starmer’s party one behind the Greens, who were up 29, while independents had 55 councillors, down 61.

27. After a decade of austerity, brexit and wealth inequality i think all the electorate want is a bit of hope. Just want our lives to be materially better and to have the percieved advantages of older generations like home ownership and stability. Strong NHS etc.

    But instead, not even a year in they seem to be reverting to Tory culture war bullshit.

    I guarantee no one gives a shit about boats in the channel of making minorities lives worse if the struggle is alleviated by things like making big business pay appropriate levels of tax to fund what is important. But instead they have decided thats too hard so lets scapegoat trans people or refugees or whatever the next poor group are.

    Fix the mess of profiteering from private companies when it comes to infrastructure (rail, water, energy) and let people have a bit more money in their pocket and then horrific right wing grifters noise is less appealing. But no, it just all seems that thats too difficult so lets dogwhistle.

    People are aghast at Trump or Farage but they are offering something. Even if that something is lies, its appealing as current traditional politicians are not making lives better.

    Ive heard of elections being won by “a retail offer” to the electorate, its not enough to say “it will be worse with those guys” even if true because your underlying message is this is as good as it gets and frankly thats not good enough. I am worried about the trajectory we are heading into but what is the point of getting into power if you dont do anything with it, thats where the discontent grows and will feed the grifters.

    So yeah, i can see why mps are mad. Actually do something meaningful fast, otherwise whats the point? Your just opening the door to the worst kind of individuals currently.

28. How can you expect Labour to change? If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it’s a duck.

29. This fucking loser is slowly walking into an active volcano. Reform will win the next election and democracy will be over.

    Great job conservatives, great job new-conservatives (ie labor)…

30. I wonder if proportional representation could be on the cards

31. Honestly , I think Labour should just hit the fuck it button now and stop with being sensible with the budgets. 

    What’s the point of bringing the debt and spending levels down only for the racist tossers to get in at the next GE and reap all the reward for it. 

    Fuck it, spending spree.

32. Surely the problem is that half the people you ask say Starmer isn’t left-wing enough and the other half think he’s not right-wing enough so he’s stuck in the middle

    For the record I think he needs more time to implement his policies and I despise Reform UK

33. What have I done to deserve this? I’m a migrant from EU. I never had issues with Law, I was always working and I never done anything bad to nobody ever in my life… now I’m starting going to get attacked, thanks god only verbally.

34. The UK will be in shambles. By the time Reform wins the next election the US will be about to go democratic again. Then the UK will be left on their own with an awful party. At least the US are big enough to be able to probably cope with Trump. The UK is not big enough to cope with Farage

35. Tbf the older generation of voters (who get winter fuel allowance, more likely to be sympathic to the farmers inheritance tax breaks, and have stronger attitudes to immigration) will have gone Reform. They feel Farage will protect them (goodbye NHS in the mea time).

    The younger generation of voters (who will feel the winter fuel allowance cuts, PIP cuts and maybe anti-immigration rhetoric) is this country continuing to kick downwards (hence the Labour are just Tory Lite / blue Labour accusations), and would likely jump to the Greens (or Lib Dems again).

    Instead, there is a perception among some that Labour isn’t differentiating themselves from the Tories, or that they’re acting as the nasty party to Brits while inviting mass immigration (which is also odd given Labour have done more to try and combat illegal migration in 6 months, etc, than the Tories did in 6 years)

36. The issue is politics isn’t about policies anymore. Parties around the world realised they can get a lot of people who dont usually vote to vote for them if they make things emotional and reactionary. Suddenly people think immigrants and trans people are the things impacting their lives the most, when they make very little difference compared to economic policies, but thats harder to understand and more boring for a lot of people. 

37. It’s literally this – the average person in the UK is, by virtue of inflation, stagnant wages, house prices, whatever metric you take, much poorer than they were.

    Small business owners are struggling to make ends meet, especially in sectors such as leisure and hospitality.

    The perception is that neither the Tories or Labour are actively doing anything to impact this issue. The Tories politically and economically nuked the country through terrible governance and labour have arguably compounded their own issues with policies such as removing winter fuel allowance for a good number of people and raising the amount businesses contribute for Employer’s NI.

    These things hit people in their pockets, again, right at the time when they need that money the most.

    People will then look to point blame and find a reason for why this must all be happening. Cue the rage about ‘asylum seekers being put up in hotels at the tax payer’s expense’. They believe that’s where literally all this money is going.

    Labour and Conservative politicians have eroded any and all trust the public once had in them by refusing to directly attack the issues that people feel in their pockets during their daily lives. I’m no economic expert and haven’t got a clue how they’d have to go about it, but the fact of the matter is the actions they have taken have exasperated the issue instead of addressed it.

    Farage screams the loudest. He says what the people want to hear: you’ll be better off, we’ll solve your problems. It’s an intoxicating message for the masses. He promises the change that will directly impact their lives on a day to day basis.

    What Reform fail to do is show exactly how they’ll achieve these promises, and so I imagine they’ll eventually fall on their own sword once this has all run it’s course.

    If Starmer continues to ignore the issues that the ‘small people’ like us are actually asking the government to address, he’s a dead man walking and the electorate will put the entire party to the sword at the first opportunity they get.

    I voted for Labour, it was time for the Tories to go, they’d done enough damage. I believe that they are doing what they feel is best for the country. The problem is, by doing these things, they are proving just how out of touch they are with those of us on the ground just going about our daily lives.

    As a small business owner, they’ve absolutely whacked me and I have to say, I’m feeling pretty fucking pissed off about it.

    Not that it’ll drive me into the arms of Reform – absoluty not!! 😂

38. He just wants his five years as PM on the CV so he can make bank as a consultant within some ghoulish corporate think-tank when his party inevitably gets thrashed in the next general election, because, like every sitting Government before him in the last 15 years (and my God, we’ve had a lot), they refuse to address the real economic and policy issues causing the growing economic divide (hint: its not immigrants, poor, or disabled people).

39. A lot of good has been done, it’s just early that it has t been felt by most then.
    By the next election, the improvement will be hard to ignore even for reform

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