Frank Hansen weighs the possibilities.

Uncertainty and chaos currently rule the Labour Party and the Government. This is a product of the Starmer Project itself – a political con perpetrated by McSweeney/Labour Together and others against the Party and the electorate, claiming to be something else, while moving to the right and imposing disastrous pro-business neoliberal policies. The chaos has been triggered by the Mandelson scandal, exposing the rotten core of the Starmer regime, and by Labour voters now making it clear that they didn’t vote for these policies. 

When the media say the chaos is similar to that of the Tories, on one level they are right. The two-party system is breaking up, (along with the post WW2 world order) – propelled by the contradictions of the global neoliberal economic framework and the rivalry between powers and trading blocs, leading to wars and the rise of populism and the far right, as well as alternative left parties.

Before the Mandelson scandal, McSweeney and his acolytes controlled all the key levers of power – the leadership, the National Executive Committee, the bureaucracy, (the rules for managing the Party): they dominated the Cabinet and parachuted many of their supporters into Parliament through manipulating selections, purging the left and facilitating a mass exodus of Party members. Labour’s election victory seemed a great one in 2024. – but it was a hollow, being primarily aimed at winning the support of the establishment through vacuous politics and the promise of stability – then once in government, introducing  business-friendly policies, austerity and support for the US and Israel.

Even if Starmer is removed, you can be sure that they will try to cling on to the levers of power and install a successor.  However, at the same time, the Project appears to be collapsing into farce and contradiction, leaving a tragedy for the labour movement to sort out. From the Project’s point of view, logic suggests that Starmer should have resigned paving the way for Streeting, yet splits are occurring and key figures seem to be going different ways.  Some say they want him to go, others like Steve Reed want him to stay. Will there be a coup or not? Politicians may fall apart – but of course one key feature of the Starmer Project is their ability to convincingly say one thing while doing another. 

Can Streeting get 20% of MPs to stage a bid? The Starmer Project  upped the percentage needed to stop the left and now one of them is being banjaxed by their own machinations! Rayner has been ‘exonerated and is now back in the frame and Miliband is lurking.  The centre left are ‘waiting for Burnham’  – but will he (a) get a seat, (b) win it (c) arrive in time – and if he doesn’t, will there have to be another leadership election further down the road? Meanwhile, he unions want Starmer to go before the next General  Election. 

This is the appalling chaos and confusion that the Labour Together/Starmer Project has inflicted on the Party. It is so disabled and corrupted politically that there seems no rational or democratic way of moving forward. The machinations taking place read more like a Monty Python sketch than the workings of a normal democratic political party.  Meanwhile McSweeney is still a member of the Party and has numerous contacts – so maybe he’s still helping to ‘sort things out’ Mandelson-style behind the scenes.

By the time you read this – one, or some. of the following may have happened: Streeting may have launched a coup with 81-plus backers, Rayner may be his opponent, Starmer may have resigned. Andy Burnham may have found a seat, Starmer may have seen them all off and will continue until a challenger arrives. Worse still, but hopefully unlikely,  they may be so divided that the bankers/markets collapse the economy Liz Truss-style and they have to call an election. 

So where do we go from here?  In the wake of the Labour Together/Starmer Project fiasco, it won’t be an easy or a short term task to return Labour to a functioning democratic party of government. Radical change and the restoration of democracy are needed urgently and Labour’s September Party conference could be our last chance to seriously begin this process – hopefully with a new leader, who is not tainted by the Starmer Project, and with policies that benefit working people and the oppressed. Ironically these could be based on Starmer’s ten points – the  ones he promised to follow when he stood for the leadership, but soon ditched once elected – which takes us back to the beginning of this tragedy/farce/mess and provides an opportunity for a new start which brings about real change – as opposed to Starmer ‘change’.  

 Frank Hansen is a former Councillor in the London Borough of Brent.

Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/54059291938 Creator: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Str | Credit: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Str Copyright: Crown copyright. Licence: Attribution 2.0 Generic CC BY 2.0 Deed