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The anti-politics of Starmer’s Labour
Recent events show it’s the Labour right’s intention to shrink the political sphere and minimise popular engagement, warns COLL McCAIL
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar (centre) and the new Labour MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West Michael Shanks (left) at a rally following Scottish Labour's win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, October 2023

EARLIER this week, Labour Together’s Josh Simons took to the airwaves to suggest shipping a barge of people-smuggler gangs to the north of Scotland. 

Speaking days before the start of the Scottish Labour conference, Simons’s suggestion was widely condemned. Well accustomed to dealing with such clangers from London, Scottish Labour described Simons’s LBC appearance as a “moment of cringe” from the “fringes” of the party.

This was disingenuous. Labour Together is central to the Starmer project, having propelled the London MP to the Labour leadership in 2020. 

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