Skip to main content
An opportunity for left advance?
ANDREW MURRAY wonders whether recent opinion polling and a fresh local authority by-election result in Ilford are an indication that the time is ripe for the left to make inroads
Clothing showing an image of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer worn by a Reform UK party supporter during the Reform UK local election launch rally at Birmingham Arena, in Birmingham, March 28, 2025

ARE WE near a tipping point? Elected not nine months ago with a huge parliamentary majority the Labour government already has the air of the sepulchre about it.

The planned savage cuts in disability benefits, driven solely by the desire to save money and thus propitiate the bond market whatever moral posturing about work accompanied Liz Kendall’s announcement, have alarmed parts of the Labour benches other outrages did not reach.

So far at least 25 Labour MPs — plus the three who remain suspended from the whip — have indicated that they will vote against the move when it comes up in the Commons. Not enough to stop them going through, but enough to provoke a crisis.

A brush with a spook

No dissent allowed

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Green Party leader Zack Polanski (centre) with party candidates and supporters after making a speech at the Church of Saint John The Evangelist in Cardiff, ahead of the Senedd election, May 2, 2026
Editorial / 3 September 2026
3 September 2026
Prime Minister Andy Burnham during a visit to Alstom Transport in Derby, to unveil a change to the education system with the launch of new technical educational routes. The new pathways will provide 14-year-olds with early access to technical skills, work experience and connections with local employers, July 28, 2026
Editorial / 28 July 2026
28 July 2026
A general view of Gorton, Greater Manchester
Britain / 25 February 2026
25 February 2026

By-election poll puts Starmer's future on a knife-edge