We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten
Wes Streeting and the history of ‘the middle class’
Socialist historian KEITH FLETT unpacks the term currently being flung about by the Labour right as an insult and finds its popular association with ‘being a lefty’ is anything but assured in reality

WES STREETING has criticised “middle-class lefties” who he thinks are standing in the way of his efforts to privatise bits of the NHS should he get to be health secretary in the next government.
He might well find that the mostly not-middle-class Unison and RCN are even more formidable opponents.
Streeting will only fit the definition of a “lefty” if it’s one drawn up by Lee Anderson. However, his £90,000 desk job as an MP marks him out as definitively middle class. Social being defines consciousness, as any “middle-class lefty” could tell him.
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