You might think that being on the left of British politics is a fairly miserable affair – as both the Tories and Labour drift to the right. Within Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, the left has been marginalised and the policies that underpinned both Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and Starmer’s leadership campaign have largely been junked.
So as we lift our eyes to 2024, I’m here to tell you some reasons for the left to look forward to the new year.
Firstly there will be a general election in 2024, and that will almost certainly mark the end of this failing and increasingly scandal-ridden Conservative government that has increased poverty, homelessness, crashed the economy and whipped up division against all kinds of minorities.
As well as kicking out the Government, there is also the election night joy of some ritual humiliation of the nasty and incompetent. For those old enough to remember the “Portillo moment” in 1997 – when Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo lost his seat, indicating a Labour landslide was coming – there will be a certain joy and schadenfreude that comes from the people hoofing out some prominent Conservatives. That moment could alight on Jeremy Hunt, Therese Coffey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, or (and this is stretching optimism) the ghoulish Suella Braverman.
Looking more practically, the past year has showed that militant trade unionism gets results. At the start of 2023, the Government was promising to impose below-inflation pay deals but after industrial action, often sustained for weeks or months, the Government was dragged into negotiations and workers won significantly better deals – not always everything they asked for, but significant improvements.
In the private sector too, a number of unions won inflation-busting deals after strike action, or sometimes merely the threat of it. Strike action works.
But the Conservatives noticed this too. In the new year, the Tories will be using new laws to impose minimum service levels during strike action. Under these new powers, workers can be compelled to work even if they voted to strike and the strike ballot was successful. Unions are also expected to encourage their members to cross picket lines to do so.
If workers do not comply they face risk of dismissal. With severe shortages in several professions – including nurses, doctors, teachers, train drivers – sacking skilled workers (who take years to train and replace) might not be a feasible plan.
There is a confidence in many unions that these plans can be both defied and defeated. I can’t imagine many parents or patients being very happy if the Government sacks popular teachers, nurses or doctors – and again, public sentiment is likely to stay with the workers, rather than on the side of an unpopular government.
And it’s not just unions. Protest erupted in 2023: the outpouring of support for Palestine solidarity demonstrations resulted in massive protests through central London. And alongside the traditional A to B marches, activists organised occupations of rail stations, shopping centres and other venues to make their point.
This government has increasingly restricted the right to protest through repressive legislation, but direct action protests by Just Stop Oil and others show that the turgid political consensus in Westminster can’t stifle people raising issues that the political class would rather ignore.
Whether it’s Sunak’s hopeless Conservatives or the increasingly stale output from Starmer’s Labour, people realise that leaving it to the politicians is not an option, and they must take action themselves.
Opposition and innovation has been left to city region mayors: this year saw Andy Burnham re-regulate the buses in Greater Manchester, and both Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire are following suit. Meanwhile, in London, Sadiq Khan has brought in the bold Ulez policy to reduce emissions and improve public health, and it’s working despite cowardly naysayers. Khan too has been a strong voice against the all-consuming anti-migrant rhetoric in Westminster, and in favour of rent controls for the capital’s hard-pressed tenants (something which Burnham also backs).
While hardly setting the world alight, the Greens have been taking seats from both the Conservatives and Labour at the local level – even winning their first council in West Suffolk in May, and picking up 241 seats around the country. Nearly half of Labour’s 2019 vote say they possibly could vote Green, up from 23 per cent in 2015, according to analysis of the British Election Survey data by Professor Paula Sturridge.
If the Greens can build support and a stronger profile, they could have a similar effect on an incoming Labour government to the Ukip party on the Conservatives – but in this case dragging the party leftwards and forcing green and social justice issues higher up the political agenda.
The final reason for hopefulness in 2024 is material reality. Privatisation of public utilities has failed and is wildly unpopular: large majorities of the public want rail, water, energy and Royal Mail back in public ownership. People can see that banks and supermarkets have profiteered through this crisis and back a windfall tax on them. And they can also see that some wealthy people could afford to pay higher taxes too.
Whether the left can find a way to break through in 2024 is up to those of us on it – whether through trade unions, protests, campaigns, political parties, or those of us putting the case in the public eye.
But against a grim backdrop, there are glimmers of hope.
Andrew Fisher is the former executive director of policy at the Labour Party
Reasons for the left to be hopeful in 2024
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25.12.2023
You might think that being on the left of British politics is a fairly miserable affair – as both the Tories and Labour drift to the right. Within Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, the left has been marginalised and the policies that underpinned both Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and Starmer’s leadership campaign have largely been junked.
So as we lift our eyes to 2024, I’m here to tell you some reasons for the left to look forward to the new year.
Firstly there will be a general election in 2024, and that will almost certainly mark the end of this failing and increasingly scandal-ridden Conservative government that has increased poverty, homelessness, crashed the economy and whipped up division against all kinds of minorities.
As well as kicking out the Government, there is also the election night joy of some ritual humiliation of the nasty and incompetent. For those old enough to remember the “Portillo moment” in 1997 – when Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo lost his seat, indicating a Labour landslide was coming – there will be a certain joy and schadenfreude that comes from the people hoofing out some prominent Conservatives. That moment could alight on Jeremy Hunt, Therese Coffey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, or (and this is stretching optimism) the ghoulish Suella Braverman.
Looking more practically, the past year has showed that militant trade unionism gets results. At the start of 2023, the........
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