Starmer’s desperate shift to the left after election disaster

While Corbyn did not have to face the dual threat from both the left and right that has been Labour’s undoing in these local elections, and a revived left-wing nationalist vote in both Scotland and Wales, the fact that MPs are comparing him with Starmer is ominous.

Starmer has one last chance

The redrawing of the electoral map strikes to the quick of the predicament now confronting the Prime Minister and his Downing Street team, with Reform UK gobbling up votes in former “Red Wall” seats in the North and Midlands, and the Greens making inroads in urban heartlands in London and Manchester.

“We have a pincer movement from Reform on the right and the Greens on the left,” one senior Labour MP mused, highlighting the challenge the Labour now faces in a five-party system.

“But we also have to remember, we’re in the middle of a Parliament, this is not a general election and voters want to use this as a protest vote. It is not the time for MPs to start demanding that we veer off further to the left or right,” they added.

Such voices calling for Starmer to deliver more of the same are vanishingly small within the party, but what appears certain, for now at least, is that Starmer will be given the chance to set out a new direction for the party in the wake of a dismal set of election results.

According to Cabinet sources, the Prime Minister is poised to deliver a major speech next week, in which he will signal a pivot leftwards as a means of fending off growing discontent within the party over his leadership.

The i Paper has been told that Starmer will drop his legalistic, often technocratic tone and aim to be “bolder” in both his pronouncements and his policies.

There will be a promise to move even closer to the European Union, to double down on the environment and green energy and to make a grander offer to younger voters, emphasising policies, such as the Youth Guarantee that pays firms £3,000 for every 18 to 24-year-old they hire for six months or more.

‘You can’t just drunk text the progressive vote’

It is part of a shift away from the political strategy overseen by Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief of staff, who believed the path to victory in 2029 was to emphasise a more rightward facing “Blue Labour” strategy.

“It’s about how you unite a progressive voting block in a way that is true, in a very Labour way, rather than trying to copy the Greens or pretending like you’re something you’re not,” an insider with knowledge of the plans said.

It will also mean the Government picks its battles more shrewdly in an attempt to see off Reform.

“If you look at the research and the polling, the voters who have gone to Reform are just proportionally much less likely to come back,” the source said.

“And that doesn’t mean you give up on them, but when it comes to immigration you will never out compete Reform on immigration anyway, so you focus on cost of living, public service reform. It’s about keeping Britain safe in the world, defence, it’s about concerns around young people and taking on the tech giants.”

But those who make up the soft left of the party harbour significant doubts that Starmer can successfully pull off a shift leftwards.

“He’s spent two years telling the progressives to f**k off,” one despondent MP told The i Paper.

“You can’t just drunk text the progressive vote and expect them to be up for it.”

To tack left or to tack right?

In a sign of the bind Starmer finds himself, those on the right of the party have warned against any drift to the left, with one MP insisting Labour must focus on working-class voters to see off Reform.

“When people literally run out of groceries midway through the month and run out of money and have to go to a food bank they’re angry about that,” the MP insisted. “I think we’ve just got to grind away on delivery, particularly, particularly cost of living.”

Next week, on Tuesday, the centre-left caucus Labour Growth Group will publish a report entitled An Honest Day – A New Economic Settlement for Britain and host a conference where it will set out its own demands for how the Government should alter course, with a focus on the “grafters” in society.

According to the authors of the LGG report, it will argue that there has been a “breakdown in the social contract of working hard/playing by the rules and [having a] better life”.

It is likely to coincide with a separate set of demands from the soft-left faction the Tribune Group, which boasts former Cabinet minister powerbrokers, such as Louise Haigh, among its number and will call for a move to a more progressive offering.

In a warning shot to Starmer, Haigh insisted that “unless the Government delivers significant and urgent change, the Prime Minister cannot lead us into another election”.

The fundamental problem the Prime Minister faces is that there is disagreement within the party of what that change should look like as both left and right wings seek to pull him in opposite directions.

There are also deep reservations as to whether Starmer has the ability to communicate the change the party is crying out for. It has left some believing that a challenge will come sooner or later.

“All people want is good government and to start feeling the change they voted for,” one MP who is close to backing a move against the Prime Minister. “They are tired of the bullshit.”