Since the disastrous outcome of the local elections for Starmer's Labour there have been rumblings of discontent in the party including MPs calling for him to be replaced. Now it is beginning to look like there may well be a serious leadership challenge. The front runners are Rayner, Burnham and Streeting. There's a problem here. Firstly, Burnham has to get himself into parliament via the upcoming byelection in Makerfield and beat Reform. Starmer shows no sign of giving way and is looking to sit it out for as long as he can.
The record of all three ‘contenders’ is poor. Recent articles in the Guardian have shown that Burnham supports Reeves fiscal rules which continue austerity and he now supports. Shabana Mahmood's racist immigration policies. That pretty much rules him out for anyone who has left or progressive values.
Rayner appears to be keeping her head down for the moment, perhaps hoping she’ll be able to sneak through when the other contenders have managed to make fools of themselves. Streeting has resigned and called for a new PM but his record on privatising the NHS and harming trans people is pretty grim. He appears to be trying to rehabilitate himself now by calling for ‘wealth taxes’.
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| Excellent cartoon from Roger Latham which sums up the Starmer situation (Private Eye) |
We need to take a quick look back to a UK political history over the past half century to get the context here. First neoliberalism started with Thatcher - huge damage to UK with PFI, right to buy, privatisation, underfunding the NHS and education. Then New Labour win in 1997 talking about a national integrated public transport system, bring rail back into public ownership and other progressive policies. Blair didn’t do any of those things introducing tuition fees and continuing privatisation. Then 14 disastrous years of Tory government leading to austerity and Brexit. So Labour gets elected in 2024 with Starmer lying about supporting Corbynite policies to become leader, and predictably doing nothing to reverse austerity and privatisation or to properly fund the NHS.
This is where we are now in 2026, in the UK, the EU and the USA our politicians are owned by oligarchs and corporations. We don’t live in
democracies anymore - if we ever did. Its worth reading this excellent piece by Jonathon Cook which explains where we are now. here are two quotes:
"The super-rich and their vassals are deeply invested in the system because it richly rewards them. They’ll deploy everything they can – from the media to the 'security' forces – to prevent change”
"Corporations are the main institutions shaping the way our societies function under globalised capitalism. They are soulless, predatory, extractive, polluting, profit-driven business empires seeking monopolistic domination over parts of the economy”.
It’s time for people to wake up and understand that our politicians in the USA, UK, and EU don't work for us.They work for oligarchs and corporations and they have done for decades. It's called #Neoliberalism. We need radical change in our democratic institutions.
REAL HOPE, REAL CHANGE!
Only the Green Party in the UK are offering this.
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