As leader of the UK’s largest union, I want Labour to succeed – but that means radical change |
If you’re hurtling at high speed towards the cliff-edge, basic common sense says you should at least try to apply the brakes. It’s that moment now: in the wake of Friday’s disastrous election results for Labour, few really doubt there will inevitably be a new party leader – and prime minister.
Yet endless speculation over the how and when of Keir Starmer’s political demise, entertaining as it might be for pundits and Westminster-watchers, is a diversion from the real debate that needs to be had.
Because amid all the intrigue, something more serious is at hand: an existential threat to the Labour party, engineered by its own leadership. In this grave context, the conversation we should be having is a far more fundamental one. The focus shouldn’t be on rearranging the deckchairs, but on how the party might save itself from oblivion.
How did it come to this? Ultimately the answer is simple. Labour has strayed a very long way from its founding mission when it was set up by the labour movement well over a century ago: to unashamedly represent the interests of the working class and its organised industrial expressions. We can all now see the consequences: a longstanding electoral coalition in tatters, fragmented in all directions.
This breaking apart of Labour’s base had been a gradual process, from haemorrhaging almost five million votes between 1997 and 2010 to getting the lowest vote share of any winning party in modern history at the last general election. But........