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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Who are Blue Labour really?
A new book shows the group’s close links to Labour Together, which hoodwinked the party membership into voting for Starmer on fake left promises. SOLOMON HUGHES attempts to get some answers about what ‘Blue Labour’ actually stands for
BLUE’S WHO? Maurice Glasman (left), who founded Blue Labour, and Keir Starmer who was helped by the group in his leadership bid

LABOUR freefalling down to 25 per cent in the polls, behind Reform, is raising questions about Keir Starmer’s direction. Some formerly pro-Starmer publications are toying with “Blue Labour,” a group claiming to be “socially conservative” but “economically leftist,” as an alternative. 

In the words of the Guardian, Blue Labour can “seriously challenge” the “indifferent, profit-seeking interests of financial capital” and “free market capitalism,” wrenching Labour back to the interests of the workers, while supposedly reassuring those workers with their socially conservative, anti-migration stands. For Blue Labour supporters, working people always get the blame for “conservative” and “anti-migrant” views, not middle-class people.

However, even a cursory inspection shows Blue Labour’s “left economics” are often absent, while the “socially conservative” stances fit easily into Starmer’s “flag-shagging” approach. 

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