The May 2025 UK local and mayoral elections have been an acid test for the new neo-liberal Labour government, led by Keir Starmer. These along with the by-election in Runcorn and Helsbey have shown a massive fall in support for Labour, as well as the Conservative Party and a surge in support for the far-right Reform UK, led by ex-city trader Nigel Farage. At the time of writing Reform UK has gained 366 council seats, with the Conservatives losing 305 and Labour losing 105. Reform UK has been the main beneficiary of the swings against both the Conservatives and Labour with the Greens making little progress, picking up and extra 17 seats and the Liberal Democrats gaining 48 extra seats. The number of independent councillors fell by 20.
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In the Runcorn and Helsbey by-election, Reform UK overturned a Labour majority of nearly 15,000 gained at the July 2024 general election, to win by just six votes, following a recount. This is a massive blow to Labour.
The result shows a huge swing away from Labour and is an indictment of the policies Labour has been following since being elected with a huge majority in 2024. Instead of Labour using this majority to champion the rights of ordinary working people it has consistently attacked them. The reduction in winter fuel payments, the retention of the two-child benefit cap, further privatisations in the NHS, continuing austerity in council budgets, conflict with Birmingham refuse workers and planned attacks on school budgets have all shown that Labour is there for the benefit of big business and not the working class.
On top of this, Labour has bragged to its members about the levels of deportations of so-called “illegal asylum seekers”, which exceeded those carried out by the previous Conservative government over a similar period. It has also used a nationalistic tone in its pronouncements – calling on support for the Union Flag and the Royal Family. It continues to purge the party of working- class fighters, alienate youth, with some even turning to Reform UK. Labour has also aped Reform UK policies on immigration. Labour has taken racist positions on immigration as well as towards the situation in Palestine / Israel and has also been a fervent advocate of continuing to supply arms to lengthen the war in Ukraine and postpone the possibility of peace. It has also taken an authoritarian line on public protest and has tacitly sanctioned the British court’s harsh sentencing of protestors as well as the recent anti-trans ruling.
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It is difficult to list the depth of betrayal of previously relatively progressive values held by Labour, in its charge towards reaction. In response to the by-election loss in Runcorn and Helsbey, all Starmer could say was that the result was “disappointing” and vowed “to go further and faster”. Where is it exactly, that Starmer wants to take the UK? Is it into the arms of the far-right and reaction? Would this be his answer to the months of hope and expectation offered by the brief and ineffectual leadership of Jeremy Corbyn?
Starmer’s plans so far have pointed almost exclusively in one direction and that is to the right. There have been modest concessions made to the trade unions in the form of small reforms to the hated Conservative trade union laws but these have been marginal at best. For the present time the Labour supporting unions remain virtually silent. Criticism, is couched in terms that appear to accept the inevitability of their continued links to Labour and although the UNITE union claims to only affiliate to Labour, its political fund was used to support over 100 candidates at the last election with no real scrutiny of their politics.
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When I raised the future of Labour at my UNITE Community union branch, the Labour members there were determined to stay with the Labour project, saying that Wes Streeting could be promoted as the next Labour leader because he has a more persuasive persona. They seemed to completely ignore his neo-liberal political agenda. These Labour members say that they are working behind the scenes for change and that they are good people. They may be good people but history is full of examples of “good people” doing bad things. When Labour councillors carry though austerity, “with a heavy heart”, making what they call, “difficult decisions”, then they are in fact taking a cowardly and passive position in relation to the wrongs that Labour inflicts.
It is objectively the case that the Conservative Party has lost out to Reform to a greater degree than Labour but this is because Reform represents the right-wing nationalistic policies which appeal more to the typical Conservative voter. In the context of the collapse of support for the Conservatives following 14 years of government ending in a series of chaotic humiliations, this is hardly surprising.
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We need to keep our focus on Labour’s betrayals and call out those who continue to bolster the wealthy egotists that support them. Those forces still tied to the Labour Party are not the answer. We need new forces and a new direction from the working-class. The latest experiment in trying to build such a force, Collective, seems to be running out of steam already. This is in large part due to the inexperience in building of its self-appointed leaders, and the secrecy that surrounds it. There is a range of other groupings attempting to build but with a wounded and divided left this is proving difficult. While TUSC and others are attempting to call for unity, new groupings with similar objectives, such as For the Many Not the Few, are springing up. These organisations all need to work and act together and previous differences, where not fundamental, need to be parked.
The response of many on the left to the call for a new worker’s party is that the left can’t organise and that old divisions persist. There could be opportunities for unions to break with Labour or for non-affiliated unions such as the NEU to begin to support a political alternative. Membership of the Labour Party in Calderdale for example has been cut in half in the recent period, down from 2000 members to 1000. This pattern is being repeated across the country. Unfortunately, many who leave or are expelled from the Labour Party disappear from the main-stream political map and at best are swallowed up into activism. Those who remain are ineffectual apologists. The Corbyn surge enthused millions and experiments on the left such as Enough is Enough or People’s Assembly have served to sap the energy and enthusiasm of youth rather than feed it. There is a wide mistrust of left groups and this, at times seems to be intractable. The Campaign for a Mass Worker’s Party, though small, is calling a national meeting and is trying to cohere the various groups. It is attempting to put left politics to the fore and work as broadly as possible with new and existing forces.
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The call for a new party of the working class is correct, but there is a long way to go before this call reaches popular consciousness. There are too many cynics who say it will never work. There are many more millions who are yet to come across the politics of the left in an electoral arena or in the mass media. TUSC continues to soldier on, with good organisational structures and policies, but others need to wake up to the fact that Labour cannot be saved, Reform in now a key player and if we don’t start building a unified movement soon, then the political field will shift further to the right. Attitudes to inclusion and race are, for the first time in decades, deteriorating. Labour’s promotion of reactionary policies on trans issues and an Islamophobic position on Palestine has fuelled this. When the Labour Party gets it as wrong, as it currently does on such issues then people need to move into politics and move quickly because Reform UK is rising and so is reaction.
