After defeat, comes the recriminations. The bulk of council seats are still yet to declare but already the blame game within Labour has started after the loss of their Runcorn safe seat. A handful of MPs on the left of the party have started publicly demanding a change of direction by the government. Richard Burgon says ministers ‘must urgently change course’ by ditching disability benefit cuts and introducing a wealth tax. Diane Abbott remarks it has been a ‘disastrous night’ for Keir Starmer; Kim Johnson claims that only ‘bold hopeful policies’ can defeat ‘the far right.’ It is a sentiment echoed by Brian Leishman who reflects that ‘the first ten months haven’t been good enough.’
Many within Labour will regard these criticisms as little more than the ‘usual suspects’ sounding off. Burgon, Abbott and Johnson are all members of the Socialist Campaign Group; Leishman has become a prominent opponent of Ed Miliband during his nine months as an MP. But the fact that these MPs now feel emboldened to speak out against the government in such an obviously co-ordinated way does risks becoming a problem for Starmer. Privately, many more Labour MPs do share concerns about the direction of this government. As Ross Clark notes, the decision to cancel winter fuel payments regularly came up on the doorstep in Runcorn. Indeed, Reform sent out a little-noticed national letter on the subject to every postal voter at the beginning of these locals.
Cancelling winter fuel lies squarely on the shoulders of Rachel Reeves. It was a brave decision on coming in to office but saved ‘only’ £1.5bn: a small sum compared to the political costs incurred. Reform campaigned heavily on this in the locals, sending a letter out when postal votes dropped, strongly criticising Reeves’ decision. Under Starmer, the criticism from the Labour left is that the leadership has often sought to ‘shoot the messenger’ when it comes to hearing things that they don’t want said. But on winter fuel, they do have a point: it was a politically toxic decision which, in the words of one MP, risks being the ‘original sin of this government.’
Throughout this campaign Nigel Farage has struck a more left-wing tone on economics. Some of Starmer’s MPs will want him to now do the same. But while policy is important, both the politics and implementation of it clearly matters too. The Prime Minister told broadcasters this morning that ‘the message I take out of these elections is that we need to go further and we need to go faster on the change that people want to see.’ He will also consider whether he should now have his first post-election reshuffle. In doing so, he ought to reflect on which ministers have taken sensible decisions in office – and which have listened too much to bad advice from officials.
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