Starmer project has failed, says union leader

President of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) has joined other trade unions in recognising that the ‘Starmer project’ has utterly failed. However, Ian Hodson goes further than the Labour-affiliated unions by arguing that people must collectively rebuild class politics itself.

Until then, he said:

the vacuum will continue to be filled by division, nationalism and billionaire-backed forces pretending to speak for working-class communities – whilst protecting the very system that caused the crisis in the first place.

Proving his commitment to solidarity, Hodson has worked with many groups including Platform for a Democratic Party. He told the Canary that he fully supports the idea of a grassroots political movement that empowers communities to shape policy decisions, and he has made clear that top-down politics harms the interests of working-class people.

After all, ordinary people always foot the bill in our crumbling society, while the rich evade tax and responsibility as they buy off politicians.

Thank you to @PlatformforaDP, of which I am proud to be a part, for this endorsement. Other members are Eric Barnes, Graham Bash, Michael Forster, Ian Hodson, Ken Loach, Ben Sellers and Audrey White. https://t.co/SlxQA98dH2

— NaomiFromKent (@NaomiFromKent) January 13, 2026

‘Starmer project has failed to deliver’

Ian Hodson spoke to the Canary following the moves by other unions to attempt to ‘right the ship’ that is Starmer’s failing Labour Party. In contrast to the other unions, Hodson believes the system will simply replace one stooge with another unless people force through radical, transformative change.

Hodson shared his insights with us, having worked alongside Labour and its leaders for many years, saying:

The Labour movement is at a pivotal moment. The Starmer project has failed to deliver the change our class was promised and in doing so has created the space for Reform to grow by feeding disillusionment, division and anger.

When politics abandons the language of class, inequality and collective hope, the far right step in with scapegoats and slogans.

He then spoke of how powerless trade unions are increasingly becoming to defend workers’ rights due to the blatant neoliberal status quo:

Trade unions cannot organise around managed decline, attacks on our own movement, and a political strategy built more on defeating the left than transforming society. Our class needs a real alternative that challenges poverty, insecurity and exploitation, not another version of the status quo dressed up as change.

Pointing to the radical change desperately required to remind politicians that the 99% matter and are the engine which drives our economy – even if the 1% offer lucrative, appealing backhanders:

What is needed now is a politics rooted once again in solidarity, public ownership, trade union freedom, redistribution of wealth and democratic control over the economy. A movement confident enough to confront corporate power, rebuild communities stripped apart by decades of neoliberalism, and give people something real to believe in instead of simply something to fear.

If we fail to rebuild that class politics, the vacuum will continue to be filled by division, nationalism and billionaire-backed forces pretending to speak for working-class communities whilst protecting the very system that caused the crisis in the first place.

Live launch of 'For the Many', with Audrey White, Ken Loach, Ian Hodson, Andrew Feinstein and more https://t.co/SRNQWrO1Ru

— SKWAWKBOX (@skwawkbox) October 9, 2023

Hodson: ‘We are conditioned to believe we are not meant to be heard as a class’

We then asked Hodson about the barriers that prevent working-class people from engaging in politics – or even considering it in the first place.

After discussing the barriers I personally felt putting my name forward in 2024 for the general election, Hodson said:

We are conditioned to believe we are not meant to be heard as a class. And women even more so.

Which is why it matters that we challenge and ultimately smash the machine that keeps power and wealth in the hands of the few.

It may take a generation, but every gain our class has ever won came because ordinary people refused to stay silent. We have had victories and defeats along the way, but every struggle leaves something behind for those who come next.

The BFAWU President isn’t alone in this principled ambition for the working classes. Your Party MP Zarah Sultana has strongly advocated for building collective power and has repeatedly warned that British society urgently needs to take “bold action”.

And, our own Ed Sykes wrote:

Sultana made it clear that strong policies and stances are necessary, and that the active participation of ordinary people matters, saying:

“The crises we face, which everyone in this room knows about – climate, cost of living, housing, inequality – they are too big for tinkering around the edges. They demand bold action and collective power. And that power starts here: it starts with you, it starts with our members, our communities, and our activists.

And Your Party has to be that platform for that power, a politics driven by the people: a politics that values diversity, but not as this window dressing exercise. It gives a voice to those who have deliberately made voiceless, and makes democracy feel real, feel tangible.”

Hodson: “Refuse to accept invisibility”

He finished by saying that it is essential that socialists today work to build a platform and provide the tools for a new generation to be even more empowered to “speak up and speak out”.

Beautifully, he finished by reminding us that courage and commitment today for working-class politics will provide: