The new Prime Minister must abandon decades of automatic support for US foreign policy, which makes us all less safe, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
Latest editorial
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
Media Lens at 25: David Cromwell and David Edwards reflect on a quarter-century of media criticism, explaining why independent journalism is more important than ever
by Weyman Bennett and Maz’s family
The International Court of Justice has delivered its clearest ruling yet that the right to strike is protected under international law, write Professor TONIA NOVITZ, Professor KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC
Emergency phone alerts could help Britain respond to rising wildfire risk, but Australia’s experience suggests they work best as part of a broader strategy, write ELLIOT CONVERY-FISHER and KATE PARKINS
A champion motorcyclist, trade union organiser and communist, Clem Beckett went from Britain’s speedway tracks to the battlefields of Spain, where he gave his life resisting Franco’s forces at Jarama. GEOFF BOTTOMS pays tribute to this remarkable anti-fascist
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.
Similar stories
Labour’s toxic centrists have wealthy backers but there’s little to suggest they can win over MPs or party members in an open fight, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES
CLAUDIA WEBBE argues that Labour gains nothing from its adoption of right-wing stances on immigration, and seems instead to be deliberately paving the way for the far right to become an established force in British politics, as it has already in Europe