Starmer’s latest comments over Corbyn are even more proof Labour is finished

Keir Starmer looking angry to camera as he boots Jeremy Corbyn and socialists out of Labour


Support us and go ad-free

Keir Starmer has torched the Labour Party in one fell swoop – telling socialists to eff-off while barring former leader Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a candidate at the next general election. Of course, this shouldn’t come as any surprise. However, is it now time to just shut up about Labour and move on?

Starmer: blah blah blah

Starmer was speaking after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) lifted the Labour Party out of the special measures it had placed on it regarding antisemitism. As Sky News reported, the EHRC:

had been scrutinising the party since ruling it was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination more than two years ago.

But the watchdog has said that, under Sir Keir’s leadership, the party has improved its complaints and training procedures to protect current and future party members.

The Labour leader, writing in the right-wing Times, said:

under my leadership there will be zero tolerance of antisemitism, racism, or discrimination of any kind.

An interesting statement, given that Starmer’s team has expelled or investigated dozens of Jewish members – most recently forcing an 85-year-old holocaust survivor to quit the party:

Related articles

Read on...

Starmer’s comments are also interesting given his stance on some issues. For example, he has shown racism over refugees and foreign-born workers – saying about the latter and immigration that:

our common goal must be to help the British economy off its immigration dependency. To start investing more in training up workers who are already here.

Meanwhile, his policies have been echoing the Tories – like his support for the electronic tagging of more refugees. Plus, Starmer has repeatedly chosen to ignore Islamophobia:

One example of this was his lack of support for Labour MP Zarah Sultana when people were sending her Islamophobic abuse.

Clearly, though, those issues aren’t a priority with the EHRC.

Socialists out, racists in

Starmer gave a clear indication that socialists are no longer welcome in Labour – saying that the “door was open” for them to leave:

One socialist in particular will not be returning:

Starmer’s refusal to allow Corbyn to stand is predictable – but also downright hypocritical and dishonest:

As the Canary‘s Joe Glenton previously wrote:

The reason Keir Starmer… [is] so desperate to slander Corbyn is because they fear and hate the ordinary working people who identify with the reformist program he put forward during his time as leader. Sadly, these capitalist goons are what the public is left with in the Labour Party, now – and Corbyn is well out of this toxic mess.

What’s Corbyn to do, then? As of 12pm on Wednesday 15 February he hadn’t commented on Starmer’s actions. However, people were calling for him to form a new party:

So, where is Labour heading now?

Shut up about Labour?

Starmer wrote in the Times that:

The Labour Party I lead is patriotic. It is a party of public service, not protest. It is a party of equality, justice and fairness; one that proudly puts the needs of working people above any fringe interest.

This rhetoric is predictable – given Starmer has thrown protesters to the wolves, refused to sanction transphobic MPs and ignored the Forde Report’s recommendations over racism in his party. Of course, this was all apparent back in 2021. As the Canary wrote at the time, in Labour:

The left wing is being systematically and permanently destroyed. Starmer and Co have plotted a course back towards the corporate, capitalist status quo. So is now, finally, the time for anyone with socialist tendencies to leave the party and put their efforts into a more worthwhile project? The answer may well be a resounding ‘yes’.

Now, Starmer has given his clearest indication yet that Labour is no longer anything remotely left wing – in fact, it is little more than a racist, discriminatory Tory-esque husk. The time of supporting these right-wing charlatans is well and truly over. It’s probably time to stop talking about them as well. However, the public is now faced with no choice from its two main political parties. So, we need to look to trade unions, grassroots community groups and each other to affect change. Whether Corbyn will feature in this on a national level remains to be seen.

Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us
  • Show Comments

      1. The evidence, sadly, is that Ms Duffield has nothing but contempt for transgender people and has never displayed the slightest wish to fight with us, only against us. Her sharing of a deeply trans-hating, utterly misleading article from the Tory rag The Spectator shows her right-wing ideology, one that fits well in the Labour party.

        Report comment

    2. As much as I hate the direction Labour has taken since Starmer became leader, there is a reason why Corbyn continues to urge people to stay in the party.
      Unity is required to win the next GE, once that’ s achieved the left agenda can be pushed hard, until then I think sowing division is dangerous.
      I’m intrigued to see what Corbyn will do. I believe he’d easily win the seat as an independent but perhaps he’ll step down and focus on his other work to avoid Labour being defeated.

      Report comment

      1. “once that’ s achieved the left agenda can be pushed hard”. Oh dear. Have you learned nothing at all? That is not ever going to happen. Starmer, a man knighted for his services to putting Julian Assange behind bars, is as much a capitalist and imperialist as any Tory. The Labour party has only very rarely been anything other than Toryism with a fake-socialist mask.

        Report comment

      2. @Kathryn : I’m afraid there will be no scope for advancing left agendas in New New Labour – Starmer made that plain yesterday with his message to Socialist Campaign Group MPs : “get on board my train, or get kicked out.”

        We might also consider the fate of others on the left of the party recently : Sam Tarry MP, for example : sacked for supporting strikers on a picket line.

        Or Naomi Wimborne Idrissi, expelled in order to stop her from taking up her elected post as the only Jewish member on Labour’s National Executive Committee.

        That’s the future under New New Labour. It’s the Esthablishment approved opposition – ie: no opposition at all.

        Report comment

      3. Were Corbyn and a few other genuine left leaning MPs to organize into a bloc, with ‘independents’ included, they could have enough seats following the next election to lever Starmite and his fellow Blairite supporters back towards the left. Britain needs an effective third party so that neither the Tory Lite Labour Party nor the feeble Tory Party have control of Parliament. A bloc within Labour, or better, a “Real Labour Party” could have real influence in the future of Britain. I just wish Corbyn was not so nice. If he had an ounce of determination he could lead a Real Labour Party that had power in Whitehall. Sadly he does not seem to understand or want power.

        Report comment

        1. @bkwanab

          You’re probably correct about Corbyn being too nice.

          I always thought what we really need is a hybrid consisting of the best traits of both Corbyn and George Galloway ( the latters ability, indeed willingness , to go head-on against anyone… including the US senate).

          Report comment

            1. Bernie Sanders is presently in UK for a few days or so doing the media rounds and promoting his book. He comes across very chipper and holds his own very confidently and persuasively in calm and deliberated manner and not as with Jeremy’s often fractious, pained delivery probably borne of constant face-to-face media’s antagonist interviewing style when ever Jeremy Corbyn is able pluck up courage to face the accusatorial onslaughts.

      4. Makes proportional representation all the more important. Why is the idea of a third progressive party so scary. Since Starmer is determined to make Labour a centre party like our Liberals here in Canada why can’t there be a third progressive party like our New DEmocratic Party, which the Liberals currently need to stay in power?

        Report comment

    4. Personally, I found that vile Starmer speech chilling. His invitation for those of us who don’t agree with his leadership was stark. Haven’t we had enough of this malarkey? Haven’t we seen orchestrated billions bile against socialism so often and too often? The writing on the wall in scribbled, barely decipherable scrawled, chalk and spray can daubs is now revivified in bright poetic twinkling neon. He told us to ‘get out’ of his Tory-lite Labour Party and that’s what we should do. The game’s up as it has been for a long, long time. Call the toad’s bluff and let’s all leave this shameful ragbag of soft-Tories that dares to label Labour “socialist”.

      Report comment

    Leave a Reply

    Join the conversation

    Please read our comment moderation policy here.

Related articles