Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
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.
More from this author
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, May 14, 2025
Labour Party / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025
Former Labour leader and Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn addresses campaigners from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign taking part in a protest outside Downing Street, London, to oppose the upcoming visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, September 9, 2025
Politics / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan at the launch of the Holiday Hope programme, July 24, 2025
Britain / 24 September 2025
24 September 2025
Former Labour leader and Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn joins workers on the picket line at the Village Hotel in Glasgow who have been on a month-long strike over pay and conditions, August 22, 2025
Politics / 24 September 2025
24 September 2025
Similar stories
ouse of Commons Handout photo issued by the House of Commons of Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London, May 21, 2025
Eyes Left / 28 May 2025
28 May 2025

The Tories’ trouble is rooted in the British capitalist Establishment now being more disoriented and uncertain of its social mission than before, argues ANDREW MURRAY

Karen Shore webpic for Abbott.jpg
Features / 3 May 2025
3 May 2025

DIANE ABBOTT looks at the whys and hows of Labour’s spectacular own goal

Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf, and Refor
Eyes Left / 10 December 2024
10 December 2024
From boozy banker renegade to man-of-the-people populist, Farage’s evolution continues — if he can win constituencies like the Welsh mining areas, the left will need new and better answers, writes ANDREW MURRAY
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer meets with representatives o
Editorial: / 5 November 2024
5 November 2024