Following a fratricidal period for the left with Morales and Arce at loggerheads, right-wing, anti-MAS candidates obtained over 85 per cent of the votes cast in the latest general election, writes FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ

HOW is Labour to get out of the doldrums? There is high anxiety as the party’s cash reserves are down to one month’s payroll and a quarter of the staff face redundancy. The loss of well over 50,000 members is a mortal blow to the party’s finances but it is symptomatic of a wider malaise.
The latest poll of polls has Labour on 33 per cent, well below the Tories on 42 per cent. The persistence of this lag is creating a crisis of confidence in the Starmer leadership which the squeaky by-election win in Batley and Spen has barely suppressed.
The last time the two parties were on a level pegging was autumn 2020 and the last time Labour led in the polls was during the 2017 general election campaign.

Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT

Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT

Holding office in local government is a poisoned chalice for a party that bases its electoral appeal around issues where it has no power whatsoever, argues NICK WRIGHT

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT