In the latest Labour Left Podcast, introduced here by Bryn Griffiths, Paul Holden, the author of The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy, explains what the shadowy Labour Together group did to the Labour Party and how they inflicted their big fraud on the Labour membership.

Ten Pledges

In 2020 Keir Starmer stood for the Labour Party leadership and made ten excellent democratic socialist pledges to the Party membership and the thousands of trades unionists who had enthusiastically voted for him. On 4th April 2020 Starmer was elected Labour Leader.  But all was not as it seemed. Starmer had committed a fraud. In the podcast Paul Holden reveals exactly what Morgan McSweeney’s Labour Together had planned for the Labour membership and it certainly wasn’t the democratic socialism they’d voted for!

Keir Starmer’s ten broken pledges to the Labour membership

Starmer’s socialist supporters

Back in 2023, Labour Together included prominent soft left figures such as Lucy Powell, Jon Cruddas and Lisa Nandy.  Former Labour Left Podcast guest Neil Lawson of Mainstream was assiduously courted by Labour Together. Starmer even employed old Corbyn staffer Simon Fletcher, and Momentum’s former National Coordinator, Laura Parker, was persuaded to back the Starmer Leadership bid.

In the podcast we discuss what was really going on.  Did Labour Together and the Starmer Project have a split personality or where the erstwhile socialist Starmerites subject to a big con?

Antisemitism allegations

Even before the book was published Steve Reed, Labour’s Housing Secretary, suggested in Politico that the book “would whitewash” the antisemitism crisis that happened under Jeremy Corbyn.  In the podcast Paul Holden give’s his response to Reed’s horrible allegation.

“This is the Machine that now rules us”

In the second half of the podcast, Paul Holden explores the suggestion that Labour Together’s internal authoritarianism is spilling over into Government.  Could Labour Together’s factionalism have created the conditions that explain the removal of Sue Gray, the Downing Street Chief of Staff? The appointment of Peter Mandelson as the US Ambassador? The proscription of Palestine Action? The attacks on refugee status?  and, even the undermining of jury trials?

Labour Together’s Response to The Fraud

Every Labour supporter needs to know the story of what Labour Together did when they learnt Paul was to publish The Fraud.  Paul tells us a chilling story of GCHQ involvement, spy allegations, Russian scare stories and ministerial resignations.

How do we fightback?

Some Labour Left  Podcast listeners and watchers have left the Labour Party and I get that. But, if like me, you’re committed to fighting on we need to do something about what Paul has spelt out to us so clearly in this podcast.

Here, as suggested in the podcast are the actions you can take and the links to find out more: Firstly, we need to restore democracy to our party so please join Sharon Graham and Andrea Egan, the Leaders of Britain’s biggest unions, in signing the Restore Labour Democracy Statement.

To sign up to the Restore Labour Democracy statement click here

Secondly, we have some important internal Labour elections this year.  If we’re going to begin to change things we need people committed to democracy in key places, so please this year vote for the Centre Left Grass Roots Alliance (CLGA) in the National Executive, National Constitutional Committee, National Policy Forum and National Women’s Committee Elections.

Here are the details of how to support the Centre Left Grass Roots Alliance internal elections campaign: click here for campaign details.

The CLGA candidates for Labour’s National Executive Committee constituency section.

This year the stakes are so high we need to work together with others in the party who want to see democracy. So, when you’ve voted for the CLGA candidates I urge you to use any remaining votes you’ve got to support Mainstream, the new soft left group.  

‘Labour to Lose’.

In 2026 we will be up against the ludicrously titled Labour to Win slate who will include the supporters of Labour Together and clearly represent continuity at the top. I think, given their performance recently, they’d be better called Labour to Lose.  But whatever we call them, if we want to save the Labour Party we’ve got to stop them.

Watch more Labour Left Podcasts

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts here, Audible here, Substack here and listen to it on Spotify here.  You can even ask Alexa to play the Labour Left Podcast. If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast. 

If you subscribe you can catch up on all our 20-plus episodes back catalogue.  The top episode of 2025 was the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP. Other big hits have included Andrew Fisher, the man behind the 2017 manifesto For the Many and not the Few, and Rachel Shabi, the author of The Truth Behind Antisemitism. To reflect more on Starmer’s leadership, check out the episode where Mark Perryman discusses his excellent book The Starmer Symptom.

You can buy The Fraud here.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. 

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.  You can find all the episodes of the podcast here  or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

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Come to the Restore Labour Democracy online event, Monday, March 16th from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, with Andrea Egan, UNISON General Secretary, Paul Holden, Investigative Journalist and author of The Fraud, John McDonnell MP, Richard Burgon MP, Rachel Garnham, Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Alex Charilaou, Momentum, Gemma Bolton, Labour NEC and more. Register here.