LEADERSHIP election fever continues to course through Westminster as Labour MPs plot the downfall of the hapless Prime Minister, who by almost every indicator seems to be passing the political point of no return.

It is reported that the Tribune group of MPs have already gathered enough names to force a contest. 

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham does not rule out a bid once he is back in the Commons, an event which has no certain date attached – it is not likely that Clive Lewis’s quixotic offer to give up his Norwich South seat, as if it was his to bestow, for Burnham will provide the answer.

Multiple other names are bandied about on the Tribunite left – recently-resigned deputy premier Angie Rayner, ex-leader Ed Miliband, former Transport Secretary Lou Haigh, newly minted Deputy Leader Lucy Powell and, most bizarrely, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, whose left credentials are thinnest of all.

On the right of the party, Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood are jostling to be the standard-bearer. Neither offer the slightest policy departure from the present desperate Starmer agenda, but both are far more fluent and forceful communicators.

The socialist left in the parliamentary party should surely present a candidate, even though it is not likely they would clear the 80-MP hurdle to be put to the membership vote, a rule change forced through by Starmer to obstruct another Jeremy Corbyn from putting their case to the party and winning.

But before the left wades any further into this speculation it needs to first take a breath and articulate the programme it wants.  That surely matters more than the particular personality.  

Any challenger is running to become Prime Minister immediately, and must have a clear idea of the agenda to be followed.

A renewed Labour government, if that is possible, should first of all signal its intent by ending all military, economic, diplomatic and political support for Israel and ranging itself unequivocally on the side of the Palestinian people struggling for their freedom.

It should also hit the pause button on the vast military spending increases demanded by President Trump and sanctioned by Starmer. Plans to deploy British forces into Ukraine, or sail aircraft carriers around the Pacific in anti-Chinese manoeuvres, should likewise be binned.

Domestically, it should do as Burnham has advised and stand up to the bond market, including by abandoning the fiscal rules, based on nothing more than frequently inaccurate forecasts, which have largely hamstrung the government.

Vital improvements to the full range of public services should be funded by a wealth tax, as championed by Richard Burgon, windfall taxes on bank monopoly profits, and the equalisation of capital gains tax with income tax.  

Further financial impositions on working people should be ruled out.

A further programme of employment and trade union rights should be introduced, plugging the many holes in the present legislation struggling through Parliament.

The water industry should be immediately taken into public ownership, with the other major utilities to follow. The House of Lords should be placed on notice that it will be abolished entirely before the next election.

A Labour government with a sense of purpose would also take the fight to Reform, rather than pander to right-wing prejudices.  If Labour wants to be at the heart of a democratic anti-authoritarian electoral bloc, it must start actually challenging the Farageists, in particular over their increasingly-brazen racism and Islamophobia.

That is the sort of platform which could actually give working people the chance to take fresh look at the Labour government.  Any candidate for leader who is serious about turning the ship around should embrace it.