The spectacle of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wrapping himself in the Union flag – the Butcher’s Apron – at his major speeches may be laughable, but it is central to winning back the electoral support of the reactionary layer of the working class which defected to the Tories in the 2019 General Election. Opinion polls suggest that Labour could win back 42 out of 45 of the so-called Red Wall constituencies in the Midlands and the North of England which returned Tory MPs. The improvement in Labour’s position in the polls however is mostly a consequence of the continued revelations of Tory Party corruption and Downing Street parties breaching public health regulations during the pandemic.
On 4 January, in front of furled Union flags, Starmer set out his plan to make Britain great again. Gone were the ten pledges he had made during his campaign to become Labour leader to continue along the path the party had been following in the preceding four years. No commitment remains to nationalise rail, energy or water companies, for instance. Re-building an electoral coalition to win the next general election requires a different emphasis. He doesn’t want to appear to be antagonistic to the Tory government because:
‘It can sound as if we don’t realise our own historical good fortune to have been born into a peaceful, creative liberal democracy. Think of all that the British have to be proud of. The rule of law. Her Majesty the Queen. Universal public services. A creative heritage that is the envy of the world.’
Harking back to the 1945 Labour government he says:
‘It was a patriotic government, which understood the importance of national defence, which created NATO, the alliance that has preserved the peace in Europe ever since and gave this country its independent nuclear deterrent.’
Labour has never dropped its commitment either to the NATO imperialist alliance, nor to nuclear weapons. Labour leaders have always known that the ruling class will never allow a party into government which is not devoted to the defence of British imperialism’s global interests. They have, however, had to present NATO’s unrelenting aggressiveness as a matter of ‘national security’, and Starmer is no exception, dismissing the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq with his eulogy for the Blair government:
‘When I reflect on previous Labour governments, I have two thoughts. The first is, what a record we have! These three chapters of change – Attlee, Wilson and Blair – made Britain a better country.’
This is not because he is a Blairite, but because he wants to unambiguously signal his commitment to the needs of British imperialism, the basis for the material conditions of the privileged layer of the working class that Labour represents.
Starmer’s patriotic fervour comes with a suitable leavening of make-believe:
‘a Labour Britain must be a prosperous nation. This country needs an industrial strategy to improve our productivity to ensure we Buy, Make and Sell more in Britain and to revive the places that made Britain wealthy.’
Industrial strategies there have been in profusion since Labour’s Alternative Economic Strategy in the 1970s: they have not made any difference to the rate at which British capitalism’s productivity has fallen behind that of its major competitors. The accompanying pledge of an annual investment of £28bn in combating climate change is a pitiful amount given the scale not just of the lag in productivity but in terms of what is really required to make an impact on fighting the consequences of climate change.
As with all Labour Party leaders, Starmer has to cover up the parasitic nature of British imperialism, declaring:
‘I regard the rule of law as one of the things that makes Britain great. Due process. Treating institutions with respect. The integrity of British justice has always been the envy of the world. And this has always been a big part of our economic success.’
There was no ‘integrity’ involved when Britain created the laws necessary to rule, loot and plunder its colonies that contributed to ‘our’ economic success for decades. There was no ‘integrity’ in the justice for the Hillsborough 97, the Birmingham Six or the Guildford Four, and no ‘integrity’ in the Supreme Court’s decision to sanction the Bank of England’s brazen theft of £1.1bn of Venezuelan gold.
Starmer’s course for the Labour Party is to show it as a safe pair of hands for managing the affairs of the British ruling class. His policy of ‘constructive engagement’ with the Tory government over the management of the coronavirus pandemic amounted to collusion in the social murder of more than 150,000 people, but this is being obscured by ‘Partygate’ and Tory government corruption. In the meantime, Labour’s pursuit of an aggressive policy against Russia over Ukraine, and China over the treatment of its Uyghur population shows that Starmer supports the illusions the ruling class has that Britain remains a global power of significance post-Brexit. And as the leader of a ruling class party, he is happy to warn the working class:
‘You can expect the opportunity to acquire new skills but you will be expected to work hard and do your bit. You can expect better neighbourhood policing but you will be expected to behave like good neighbours in your own community too.’
Starmer does not have the inhabitants of Mayfair in mind.
In the near-two years since he won the Labour leadership election in April 2020, Starmer and his allies have worked tirelessly to drive the Labour left out of any position of influence; they have restricted the powers of local parties, suspended those which have offered any resistance, proscribed organisations such as Labour against the Witch Hunt and Resist, expelled hundreds of members and have kept Corbyn out of the Parliamentary Labour Party for more than a year. Starmer’s hatchet man, General Secretary David Evans, was confirmed in his post by a 60:40 majority at the 2021 Labour conference. Discredited right wingers like Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper are back in the shadow cabinet; virulent Zionist Wes Streeting is Shadow Secretary of Health. As Labour-led councils prepare to implement a thirteenth year of service cuts, the Labour left maintains the illusion against all evidence that Labour can become a vehicle for social progress. They and their supporters outside the Labour Party remain the biggest obstacle to building a serious working class movement in Britain. They have to be defeated.
Robert Clough
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 286, February/March 2022
