As the Tories and Labour become increasingly similar, many left-wing voters find themselves politically homeless
Pro- law and order, pro-landlord, anti-immigration, angling for the support of middle-aged homeowners. No, I’m not describing the Tory Party, this is Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
An illustrative case is the recent government announcement that it will be housing migrants in ex-military bases and is "exploring the possibility" of using ferries as floating detention centres. This comes after a furore in the right-wing press about how much it’s costing to house these vulnerable people in hotels.
Now people who are fleeing wars and oppression, and come to Britain in search of something better, will be housed out of sight as much as possible, less the sight of the needy upset some angry Boomers. This is the sort of outrage that the opposition should be opposing on moral grounds.
The Labour response, or lack of
Where is the Labour opposition to this? Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the plan was "an admission of failure" on asylum policy, which is hardly a plea for better conditions for her fellow human beings. Kier “human rights lawyer” Starmer has not gone out of his way to make housing vulnerable migrants a Labour priority. He’s more interested in winning over the people who think shoving migrants out of sight and into poor quality accommodation is the best way to treat the needy.
Labour under Starmer has no interest in standing up to the ever-increasing anti-migrant sentiment in Britain. In fact, they pander to it as much as they can. What will happen when angry voters demand something even more dehumanising in the future (the likely outcome of the constantly rising hatred of migrants)? How far is too far for Labour?
Labour giving the government’s authoritarianism a free pass
The same can be said on crime, where Starmer has recently claimed that the smell of cannabis wafting through windows is “ruining lives”. This statement is daft because Starmer (who is many things, but not an idiot) must know that the war on drugs has failed and that an, at least, tacit acceptance of weed has worked well in countries like the US and Italy. It’s just further proof that Starmer doesn’t want to change anyone’s mind on these issues, only pander to their existing beliefs.
Meanwhile, Cooper isn’t causing much of a fuss outside parliament about the government’s increasingly authoritarian anti-crime policies, such as their new clamp down on anti-social behaviour. Kids who have had all their social clubs and after school activities cut now can’t hang out in parks without being hassled by the police. Where is Labour on this? On the side of the Boomers who want kids to get off the grass.
This is happening alongside new powers for landlords to evict tenants, at a time when renting for millions of people is already dangerously insecure and homelessness has risen dramatically since the Tories came to power. Again, where is Labour on this? On the side of landlords and not tenants, less they upset some middle-aged homeowners.
We don’t need two Tory parties
The thing is, we already have one party that is pro-law and order, pro-landlord, anti-immigration, angling for support of middle-aged homeowners and it’s the Tories.
We have a party that wants to turn every angry prejudice about the youth expressed in the Daily Mail into a brutally enforced ban on something. We have a party that wants to keep migrants out, landlords safe in their ability to exploit tenants, young people in their place and supports harsh policing of anyone who doesn't own a double fronted semi-detached house in a leafy suburb. Why do we need two?
Yeah, I get it
Yeah, I get that Labour is going after the voters it needs to flip to get into power and, y’know, do something to help the homeless and people on huge NHS waiting lists. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently warned of a ‘lost decade’ on working to avoid the worst aspects of climate change. We can’t afford to lose another and to do this we need Labour in power.
I get it that the first past the post voting system, tribal voting habits and low youth voting turnout means that some people’s votes are just more important than others. You must play the game as it is, not the one you want to play. You don’t win the FA Cup by turning up with a tennis racket.
I also get that Jeremy Corbyn, and socialists like myself, aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and Labour wants to do some things differently after losing four general elections. But there’s a huge gap between Corbyn and being so close to the Tories that it’s hard to tell the difference on many issues - other than climate change, I’ll give Labour that one.
People to the left of Starmer
It’s easy to dismiss everyone to the left of Starmer as blue-haired, craft beer drinking, very online, Novara Media subscribing, hardcore activists who only read tomes of Marxist theory or histories of how terrible the British Empire was, who attend meetings with bearded real ale drinkers still wearing the same Clash t-shirt from the late 70s who are still fighting the Miners’ Strike.
Most of that describes me (apart from the blue hair, my hair has thinned too much to dye), but that’s not everyone to the left of Starmer. There are many people I have spoken to, from teachers to millennial parents, from young professionals trapped in precarious rental accommodation to gay boomers worried about growing intolerance in public life, who are alienated by how little Labour cares about them and how much they care about the opinions of Tory voters.
These people disagree on many things, from tax to trans-rights, but they all want something a little more left-wing than what Starmer is offering. They all think it isn’t necessary to chase the socially conservative Daily Mail vote to the exclusion of all else. Who will speak for these people? The people who don’t want to build a wall around the country. The people who aren’t horrified by the smell of weed.
Politically homeless
Of course these people don’t matter to Labour, Starmer and his cheerleaders in the press, although even they can only manage tepid optimism. To them the only people that matter, the only real people, are socially conservative, middle-aged, home owning swing voters in marginal seats. Workington Man and Stevenage Woman. The sort of people who think Gary Lineker is a dangerous left-wing radical.
We now have two main parties representing these voters and if you want anything to the left of this then mainstream “sensible” politics doesn’t want to hear from you. The sad thing is that there are many people on the left who are completely unrepresented by the two parties that are likely to form the next government.
I’m further left than the average person looking at Starmer in dismay about how eager he is to pander to every right-wing prejudice, from immigration to benefits. However, there is a big audience to the right of me and to the left of Starmer who now find themselves politically homeless as the Tories and Labour become increasingly similar.
Labour Party picture taken by Andrew Skudder and used under creative commons.
