Starmer – further evaluations of his first year
JVL Introduction
A few days ago we posted Phil Burton-Cartledge’s assessment of Starmer’s first year, One year of Keir Starmer.
More critical assessments have appeared from a range of left-wing perspectives and we publish short extracts from a further four here with links to the full articles.
These are by Daniel Finn in Jacobin, Grace Blakely in Tribune, Jonathan Cook in Middle East Eye and Mike Phipps on Labour Hub.
All are excellent. None is exactly enthusiastic…
Keir Starmer Has Spent a Year Pushing Labour to the Right
Daniel Finn, Jacobin, 4th April 2021
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has been an incompetent opposition to Boris Johnson. But he has fulfilled his immediate objective during his first year in charge: waging war on the Labour left, attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy, and pushing his party to the right.
As Keir Starmer approached the end of his first year as Labour leader, there was a sullen mood in the camp. An editorial in the New Statesman, would-be house journal of Starmerism, complained that his leadership was devoid of vision: “The Labour Party seems to have lost confidence in what it is, what it wants and for whom it speaks.”
Tom Kibasi, an enthusiastic supporter of Starmer’s leadership campaign in 2020, delivered a scathing verdict on his record to date in February of the following year. According to Kibasi, Starmer had “provoked a completely unnecessary war with the party’s left” and launched a “full-frontal assault” on the Labour membership that was equally avoidable…
Keir Starmer’s First Year Has Been a Disaster for Progressives
One year ago, Keir Starmer was elected leader on a promise to make Labour a ‘real opposition’ again – instead, he has consistently failed to push back against the most right-wing government in living memory.
A year into his leadership, Keir Starmer has managed to defy the expectations of even his most ardent critics. When he was elected, polls found that he had broad levels of support across many demographics. In a relatively short period of time his Labour Party was neck-and-neck with the Tories in the polls. One year later, however, one in five Labour voters has an unfavourable view of Starmer. His net satisfaction rating among the general population is -9%…
In reality, Starmer has no one to blame for his first year as leader of the opposition but himself. He has alienated socialists by waging a campaign against the Left and suspending Jeremy Corbyn from the party, while simultaneously losing liberals by refusing to oppose one of the most corrupt and authoritarian governments in living memory…
Starmer isn’t ‘too cautious’ – he is ruthlessly tearing Labour apart
Jonathan Cook, Middle East Eye, 5th April 2021
A year in, the British Labour leader is giving the Tories an easy ride while investing his energy in an all-out war on the party’s left
The completion of Keir Starmer’s first year as Labour leader might have passed without note, had it not been the occasion for senior party figures to express mounting concern at Labour’s dismal performance in opposition to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government.
At a time when Labour ought to be landing regular punches on the ruling party over its gross incompetence in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, and cronyism in its awarding of multimillion-pound coronavirus-related contracts, Starmer has preferred to avoid confrontation. Critics have accused him of being “too cautious” and showing a “lack of direction”.
British voters’ aversion to Starmer is not that he is ‘too cautious’ or lacklustre. Rather, they suspect he is politically dishonest…
An exercise in lowering expectations
Mike Phipps, Labour Hub, 7th April 2021
There have been several media assessments of Keir Starmer’s first year over the last few days, but few miss the mark so completely as that by Polly Toynbee in yesterday’s Guardian.
It’s a veritable bombardment of euphemisms which cannot conceal the parlous state of the Labour Party one year after his election. There is no mention of the suspension of scores of ordinary members for lengthy periods of time, often on the whim of regional officials, nor the seizing control of entire local parties in order to impose electoral candidates that grassroots members would be unlikely to vote or organise for.
Just this week, the story came to light of a candidate chosen eighteen months ago by members in Walsall who found herself suddenly deselected without explanation and replaced by the incumbent councillor whom members had already rejected…
‘First year’ – or ‘first and only year’? The forthcoming election results may well decide that – and they’re not looking good for ‘Keith’ and the new-New-Labour Party:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-parliament-election-2021-anas-sarwar-says-scottish-labour-has-not-hit-a-ceiling-in-the-polls-3193582
https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/politics/conservatives-on-course-to-take-hartlepool-from-labour-according-to-new-by-election-poll-3190512
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51709639
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I’m not convinced that the Labour Party will survive Keir Starmer, particularly if Scotland becomes an independent state.
Starmer and his whole front bench must resign. They have all but destroyed the Labour Party for personal gain. They are a total disgrace, and have brought shame and disgrace on the whole labour movement.
Starmer and associates are presently routinely working against the interests of our Labour Party to get at the democratic socialist members. This might matter less if Starmer is performing as an all round brutal political warlord who is also successfully ending the iniquitous Conservative government. But, sadly, Keir Starmer is a hopeless flop at effectively combating political opponents who happen to be doing down our country. Keir does not care about the ordinary people of Britain, as has been shown in many ways.
I totally agree Starmer has been a total disappointment. I did not vote for him but I did not expect given what he said to get elected re the 10 pledges that he would wage a war against the former leader and his supporters . It is totally immoral and a grasp at power regardless of consequence’s. Kinnock spent much of his time waring against the left of party getting rid of descent people because they were anti thatcher and good socialists. look where that got him.
Starmer is even worse. I cannot see him surviving . The Labour left that remain should come out and confront what is going on in LP challenge the Starmer narrative on every issue including anti Semitism.
Starmer has deserted the battlefield before the war has even begun. He is perfectly happy to carry on with neloliberalism. The country is crying out for change but none will be forth coming if Starmer and the Labour Right have anything to do with it.
I had hoped, when Starmer was elected leader of the LP, that he would be an anodyne nonentity – the man who rose without trace. Sadly, he became, and still is, a wrecking ball. If the LP does badly enough in May he could well be told to fall on his sword. If he continues in his present position until the next general election there may not be much of a party left to lead and that would mean that I would live the rest of my life under a Tory government. Ho hum!