After upsurging populists from Reform UK humiliated and stunned both the Labour and Conservative parties with their historic victories in the local elections, many are looking for ways forward.
Among the Labour party MPs and power brokers, there is ample dissatisfaction, both from a more centrist wing as well as those even more leftist than failing Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Today (4), a leading Labour ‘Red Wall’ MP has blamed the ‘hyper-liberal’ government for ignoring working-class concerns about immigration.
Jonathan Hinder, MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, considers mass migration an ‘existential threat’ for the Labour Party’s newfound – but already fading – electoral dominance.
The Telegraph reported:
“Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Hinder, a leading MP in the socially conservative Blue Labour caucus, warned Sir Keir that it was ‘now or never’ for him to convince traditional backers. He said: ‘The voters know instinctively what the Left often refuses to acknowledge – immigration is fundamentally an economic issue as much as it is anything else, and working-class people are generally the losers’.
‘Imagine for a moment, hard as it may be, that Labour pivoted sharply on immigration. A goal of roughly balanced migration – equal numbers emigrating as immigrating – was communicated and steadily delivered by the end of this Parliament. This would return us to the more or less balanced net migration levels we had for decades’.”
Meanwhile, Reform is defending a freeze on ‘all non-essential migration’.
“Mr. Farage claimed Reform is now ‘the party of the working class’, after it won control of councils in Durham, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. It also beat Labour by six votes at last Thursday’s by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.”
“But Labour has morphed into a hyper-liberal party more than a socialist party, such that secure borders and low immigration are seen as ‘Right-wing’ within its ecosystem of city-based activists, think tanks and associated organizations.
This is existential for the Labour Party now. Our drift away from our working-class base has been decades in the making, and goes far deeper than the tenure of any one leader. Platitudes about ‘listening’ and ‘learning’ will not do. It is now or never for Labour and the working class.”
But some criticism also comes from people to the left of Starmer.
Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, has complained that ‘stealth’, unannounced policies introduced by the government make the working class ‘look elsewhere.’
BBC reported:
“Speaking on the BBC’s Politics North show earlier, Maskell said: ‘Policies that have been introduced since July that weren’t in our manifesto – the cuts to winter fuel, not honoring the Waspi women [and] taking away the vital lifeline of support for disabled people – of course people are confused’.
‘If we are not there serving people as they expect us to and as is our duty, then of course they are going to look elsewhere’.”
Maskell urged leadership to reconnect with voters.
“The proposed cuts to social security would have a ‘massive impact on people, leaving” them in poverty’ and ‘forcing many people into poorer mental health’, she said.
‘We absolutely need to stop these reforms, which Labour are trying to progress, and ensure that we now reflect on the real things that are going to make a difference’.”
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