Are working-class voters lost to Labour for good? | Letters
It would be helpful for progressive parties and the media to focus more on why so many people voted for Reform UK,Your article (What’s behind surge in support for Reform and Greens across England? Five key takeaways, 10 May) indicates that it gained more support in deprived areas – but this doesn’t answer the question why,What sort of UK do Reform voters want? Do they want councils that reduce local care services for their vulnerable elderly relatives and children, to save a few pennies off council tax? The ending of environmental protections? The scrapping of equal-opportunities policies that protect women and minority groups?When Reform voters are asked about the party’s policies, they fail to articulate much apart from “stop the boats” – because Reform’s plans have very little detail or real‑world application,The Labour government has been in power for less than two years and has delivered the Renters’ Rights Act and the Employment Rights Act, removed the two-child cap on universal credit, increased provision of free school meals and facilitated millions more NHS appointments,The focus on personality-driven politics has left the door open for local governments to be led by privately educated multimillionaires who dismiss the climate crisis and favour cryptocurrency.
How this will help people struggling with the cost of living and chronic health conditions related to pollution, poverty and inequality remains unclear.Paula RiseboroughBath I’ve been involved in the trade union movement all of my adult life, from the defeats of the 1980s to the austerity of the 2010s.In that time, the Labour party effectively abandoned its historical base.I was fortunate to get a small grant to attend Ruskin College in Oxford and the University of Sheffield, supported by the Transport and General Workers’ Union, and latterly Unite after working in the agricultural construction sector.I am possibly the last of a generation of working-class adults to come through that avenue and still make a contribution to the wider trade union and labour movement.
Labour will only reconnect with its working-class base if it creates the opportunities for working-class adults, through grants and wider support, to advance through education as part of an overall strategy to give a new generation the same chance I had,Reform has simply latched on to the disenfranchised working-class vote using simplified language to address complicated questions,By the way, attacking the Greens is not the answer: their position on basic income and trade union rights is resonating with progressive voters,I fear, however, we are facing two things: the real threat of the Labour party disappearing as a political force (this incidentally happened to its sister party in Ireland) and, second, as Eric Hobsbawm noted nearly half a century ago, “the forward march of labour halted”,Greg SachnoPortaferry, County Down Andrea Egan is at pains to demonstrate how the Labour party has severed its links with the working class, but the working class has been conned out of existence (As leader of the UK’s largest union, I want Labour to succeed – but that means radical change, 10 May).
I have a professional qualification, my wife and I owned our house, and we were expected to consider ourselves middle class and therefore vote Conservative,The fact that I would wake up at 5,15am to go to work, would often wear overalls and safety shoes, and for most of my life was less than six weeks from penury if I had become unemployed, makes me working class, in my opinion,From Thatcher onwards, great effort was made not to improve the lives of working people but to kid them that they were no longer working class – and therefore should vote Conservative,Regrettably, the Labour party went along with this deception and Tony Blair, as leader, made matters much worse by abolishing clause IV of its written constitution.
This originally stated: “To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry.” Workers need to recognise they are still workers even if they sit behind a desk.It goes on: “and the most equitable distribution thereof”.We should be screaming from the rooftops that society is horribly wrong and unequal.Calling yourself “middle class” does not make it any better.
Chris Sumner Waltham Abbey, Essex Keir Starmer is wrong to say the election results do not mean a tack to the left or right is necessary (Opinion, 8 May).He has already tacked hugely to the right by attacking refugees,disabled people, jury trials and the right to protest over Gaza.His U-turns over winter fuel allowance and the two-child benefit cap have shown up his value-free incompetence.He has presided over a systematic purging of idealistic leftwingers from the party.These betrayals of Labour party values have emboldened the far right and disheartened many long-term supporters.
A reversal of the unpopular policies and a decisive shift to the left is needed to save the Labour party and, for this, Keir Starmer has to go.So too do all the senior Labour politicians who supported these dire policies – his replacement needs to be someone who did not.Louise ChristianLondon Political positioning has been the death of this government, as it was for successive governments in recent years.It ducked the hard decisions in its manifesto and has been trying to catch up with reality ever since.Europe, defence, energy, welfare, tax and investing in our physical and social infrastructure all need coherent policies that make sense not just individually but as a whole.
It is that organising principle that is missing and is the main challenge whether for the prime minister or his potential successors.Can they provide a rationale that will guide the inevitable trade-offs, or will it be more crisis management mixed with shopping-list policies? It’s time for the whole truth.Half truths will no longer do.Tom KellyPrime minister’s official spokesman, 2001-07 Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
‘Hold the line’: Burnham tells allies in parliament he still has options to return
Andy Burnham has told Labour MPs they should hold the line and that he has options to return to parliament after several seats identified by his allies failed to materialise.Two seats that backers of the Greater Manchester mayor had described as “nailed on” as recently as Monday night are now out of contention after the MPs concerned got cold feet.Burnham spoke to a number of MPs by phone on Tuesday and assured them that he still intended to seek an imminent return to parliament.The Guardian was told by two MPs on Wednesday that Jeff Smith, who represents Manchester Withington, an affluent suburb of the city, was in talks about stepping aside for Burnham, but his friends denied it. Asked whether he was about to make way, Smith told the Press Association he was not
‘It’s more incrementalism’: Starmer’s safe king’s speech fails to quell mutiny
For Keir Starmer’s Labour critics, his second king’s speech, in which the government set out what it would do in parliament over the next 12 to 18 months, was a crystallisation of everything that was wrong with the prime minister’s strategy.Over 34 bills and three draft ones, Starmer set out a programme he said would “make this country stronger and fairer”. But the package, which included limiting trial by jury, reshaping the NHS and moving the country closer to the EU, fell short of what some in the prime minister’s party feel is needed to win back voters’ trust.“Most of this is incrementalism,” said one Labour MP. “This sums up where we have gone wrong in the first two years in government
Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Streeting despite health secretary’s allies saying he is planning to resign – as it happened
Downing Street has now confirmed that Wes Streeting is still health secretary. The PM’s spokesperson told reporters the prime minister has “full confidence” in the health secretary.Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration with Keir Starmer’s leadership, and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as Thursday.Keir Starmer has put long-promised changes to education, health and the courts at the heart of his agenda for the next year, as the embattled prime minister looks to prove he can enact the scale of change being demanded by Labour MPs and voters. There were 37 bills in the speech
Labour politicians should put the country before their party | Letters
As an active and loyal Labour member, I am infuriated by what is happening within the party (Burnham allies warn against quick ‘coronation’ of Streeting if Starmer quits, 12 May). The ongoing circus about the leadership is a terrible distraction from the numerous global and national issues that the government and the prime minister should be focused on. But the most infuriating aspect of the entire shambles is the relentless speculation and briefings from so-called “allies” of Andy Burham.No Labour member has an innate right to be selected as a parliamentary candidate. The assertion that a sitting Labour MP should give up the seat voters elected them to, necessitating a byelection so that Burnham can run, then assuming that he would automatically retain the seat, is arrogance beyond belief
Labour lost the vote of small business owners like me | Letter
Your report (Reform wins across northern England overturn decades of Labour control, 8 May) touched on Labour losing support among small business owners. I wanted to offer the perspective of a small independent business owner who has traditionally supported Labour.Labour’s poor local election results may reflect a growing frustration among small business owners who no longer feel recognised as “working people”. In hospitality, hair and beauty, retail and trades, there are thousands upon thousands of us keeping local economies alive while taking home increasingly modest incomes ourselves.Last year, our small independent restaurant in Margate turned over roughly £350,000
King’s speech might be the last word on Starmer as reluctant monarch does his duty | John Crace
The king looked fed up. His attempts to throw a sickie had come to nothing. Did the government really want to go ahead with the state opening? Apparently it did. Would it be OK if he phoned it in? He fancied a day working from palace. It wouldn’t be OK
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