If anyone needed further proof that the mainstream political system has collapsed, they need look no further than the May 7 elections and Labour’s historic defeat. Keir Starmer’s party shed hundreds of seats, lost control of many councils as well as the Welsh Assembly. Labour finished a distant second in Scotland and were defeated by the Greens and Reform UK throughout England.
A general election based on these figures would leave Reform the largest party in Parliament and Labour reduced to a rump, along with the Tories. The significance of the demise of the two once dominant parties that between them have directed state power for over a century should not be underestimated.
For many voters, especially outside London, this was not so much a vote for the right-wing Reform party or the Greens, as an angry protest against the failure of the Tory and Labour governments to improve their lives and offer hope for the future.
Reform and Green-led councils will be up against it from day one, facing the same dwindling resources. But that was clearly not a consideration for most voters who wanted to register their rejection of the status quo in an echo of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Then, the call to vote ‘remain’ that came from every mainstream party was ignored amidst the thought that things could not get worse.
In the decade since the Brexit referendum, things have actually worsened for the majority. Increases in the cost of living are relentless; many local services are rationed; unemployment is rising, especially amongst the young; the NHS staggers from crisis to crisis and decent housing is available only for those with substantial resources.
The 2024 general election resulted in what was termed a ‘loveless landslide’, when Labour, under the figurehead leadership of Keir Starmer, won a massive majority on a low turnout and with the support of just a third of voters. In practice, a right-wing, authoritarian group that included Peter Mandelson, Steve Reed and Morgan McSweeney took control, ousted the left and made Labour a party solely dedicated to suppressing dissent and, above all, managing capitalism in crisis at the expensive of working people.
The removal of the winter fuel allowance for older people and retention of the Tory ceiling on child benefit demonstrated that appeasing both Donald Trump’s regime and the international money markets who lend to governments, was and remains the priority. May 7 was the riposte. From ‘loveless landslide’ to ‘loveless defeat’ in two years. Not bad going.
The issue of Starmer’s leadership should not be allowed to obscure what’s really happening here. What’s at stake is much more important than one person’s political career. Historic issues and challenges can’t be answered simply by changing the deckchairs on the political equivalent of the Titanic.
First and foremost, we are living through a whole system crisis. The breakdown of international relations led by Trump’s dictatorial regime’s attack on Iran is one side of it, while a US-led trade war is another. Climate change is accelerating as social inequality and divisions reach boiling point. AI in the hands of the tech giants is fuelling the situation.
Global capitalism has failed to recover from the 2008 financial crash and a renewed debt meltdown is a real possibility. That’s why Labour has failed to ‘deliver’ and whoever comes next to manage the failing system will fare no better. Powerful, global economic and financial forces are now beyond the grasp of governments, left and right.
What the last decade has delivered in political terms is a divided Britain – many more local councils have no overall control – amidst the failure of mainstream politics. Representative democracy was a great achievement, the result of heroic struggles against the state. Now it threatens to put figures like Nigel Farage in charge of the state. That doesn’t bear thinking about. In any case, voting Labour to keep Reform out is meaningless.
The way to unite communities is to provide not just a voice in the abstract but a new way of doing democracy that gives people real power over decision-making and resources at local, regional and national levels. Popular Assemblies have to be the way to go if we are to defeat the looming catastrophe. Watch this space for new, exciting initiatives along these lines.
It’s interesting how the traditional two-party race, based on a first-past-the-post system, has now splintered in multiple directions. People’s assemblies, which allow communities to make decisions about their own lives, make much more sense than having a minority with vested interests making decisions for everyone else. I no longer trust those in power, as they do not convince me that their intentions are for the good of the whole.
An excellent & sadly gloomy analysis there Paul. We need a miracle to turn it all around.
Dylan
That it’s not just about Starmer is underlined by the collapse of Labour in its historic strongholds of Scotland and Wales. For Reform UK to be taking seats in Scotland is a sign of the failure of Labour to be able to make any headway in challenging the increasingly unpopular SNP. In Wales people did have an alternative to Reform and they took it by voting for Plaid Cymru. Now we have an independence party in Scotland with no interest in independence, governing with a Green party that has no interest in the Environment and, thanks to people’s disgust with the status quo, some of the seediest individuals ever involved in politics in Scotland (and that’s saying something) sitting in the parliament. This is a deep, throroughgoing crisis of all the state entities and functionaries of the UK.
Very good analysis. Starmer and co dishonestly threw out the agreed LP policy platform once he was elected leader. He carried on much as the Tories had done and has opened the door for Farage. Pity his successor who will face the same problem of a disintegrating world system that cannot be restored in the old way.
A fine report Paul. Thank you for the clarity in your piece.
With kind regards,
Donald McQueen (Wigan)