Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
The final straw?
Starmer’s unseemly rush to the right is part of a historical pattern when Labour is in power, argues ANDREW MURRAY, but there’s no reason why politics in general should follow this trajectory
DRAWING A LINE: Anneliese Dodds, who resigned as development minister after cuts to the foreign aid budget to pay for war

IT SEEMS to be a law of British political history that every Labour government ends up further to the right than it started out, no matter what the point of departure.

Ramsay MacDonald had modest plans in 1929, but they did not include cutting unemployment benefit and forming a coalition with the Tories two years later.

Clement Attlee set out all nationalisations and health service but ended up cutting welfare to fund aggression in Korea.

Echoes of Salisbury

A winning deal

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn M.P. (left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South on the picket line outside London Euston train station. Picture date: Thursday August 18, 2022
Parliamentary Politics / 24 July 2025
24 July 2025

Corbyn and Sultana commit to launching new socialist party

Former home secretary James Cleverly delivers a speech at The Institute for Public Policy (IPPR) in London, July 15, 2025
Tory Party / 22 July 2025
22 July 2025
Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the Government's first Civil Society Summit in London, July 17, 2025
Eyes Left / 23 July 2025
23 July 2025

If Labour MPs who rebelled over the welfare reforms expected to be listened to, they shouldn’t have underestimated the vindictiveness of the Starmer regime. But a new left party that might rehome them is yet to be established, writes ANDREW MURRAY
 

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech at the government's first Civil Society Summit in London, which aims to bring together leaders from charities, expert groups, communities, and government, July 17, 2025
Britain / 17 July 2025
17 July 2025

Starmer doubles down on witch hunt by suspending the whip from Diane Abbott

Similar stories
DODGY DUO: Pleased as Punch Peter Mandelson and Keir Starmer
Features / 7 March 2025
7 March 2025
You’ll never guess why a quick peace in Ukraine might be in the ambassador to Washington’s interests, writes SOLOMON HUGHES. Actually, of course you will – he stands to make a lot of money from his business links to Russia
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Sir K
Editorial: / 2 March 2025
2 March 2025
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to soldiers at
Features / 21 February 2025
21 February 2025
The proxy war in Ukraine is heading to a denouement with the US and Russia dividing the spoils while the European powers stand bewildered by events they have been wilfully blind to, says KEVIN OVENDEN