Only five months into Starmer’s new Labour government, his and Rachel Reeves’ support levels are at an all-time low. According to YouGov, only a measly 23% now view Starmer ‘favourably’, compared to 52% who view him ‘unfavourably’. Likewise, only a mere 18% view Reeves positively! This is the sharpest and quickest drop in support for any Prime Minister since Liz Truss — the Tory PM whose disastrous time in office saw the British economy collapse, drawing comparisons between Truss and a lettuce.
Why is Starmer so unpopular after so little time in office?
As we pointed out as far back as July, Labour’s victory in the last election was always extremely shallow. Rather than an endorsement of Starmer’s tired centrist politics, the result was more a comment on the majority’s desire to be rid of the Tories after 14 years.
Despite promising to “end the chaos” and deliver “change”, it has quickly become apparent that Starmerism will not be capable of reversing declining living standards or providing the huge investment needed to rescue decimated public services. Meanwhile they have doubled down on war-mongering, aligning with Biden’s dangerous decision to allow long-range missiles to be fired into Russian territory in the Ukraine war and continuing its shamefaced position of support for the genocidal war in Gaza. All the while, the decline of British capitalism is continuing unabated.
Despite introducing some meagre but welcome improvements for some sections of workers, such as making agreements based on substantially improved offers with striking junior doctors and rail workers, Labour’s economic policy has been unashamedly pro-capitalist. From refusing to scrap the draconian two-child benefit cap, to axing the winter fuel allowance for pensioners, Starmer has shown his willingness to punish the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society for a crisis caused by this profit-hungry system. One group now under attack is disabled people. With policies aimed at punishing those too sick or disabled to work in this inhumane system and attempting to force them ‘back to work’.
Showing her real loyalties, Rachel Reeves has recently announced a further raft of policies designed to reward the billionaires in the City of London, scrapping previous restrictions on corporate bonuses which were introduced in the wake of the 2008–9 financial crisis. However for the rest of us, all we have to look forward to is more misery. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall has set her sights on penalising young people, promising to sanction benefits for young people out of work, and to force young people into bogus ‘training’ and ‘apprenticeship’ schemes.
But despite these desperate attempts to pay off the bosses, the capitalist establishment isn’t completely happy either. Upon taking office, Starmer and Reeves have felt mass pressure from below after 14 years of Tory misery. They have been compelled to make some limited concessions to workers in the form of a small rise in NHS funding to be funded by small increases in National Insurance Contributions from employers.
These small concessions, which are a tiny drop in the pond compared to what is needed, have nonetheless angered a section of big business which fears workers demanding more. The pushback faced by multi-millionaires and billionaires at the recent meeting of the Confederation of British Industry (Britain’s main bosses’ organisation), shows the unwillingness of the big business establishment to concede even the smallest amount in increased taxes or better pay and employment rights. In reality, the only way we can win lasting improvements is through mass working-class struggle. It also shows how much Reeves’ promise to be both “pro-worker and pro-business” rings hollow. Working class people have no interests in common with the capitalists.
Right wing on the rise…
One recent petition on the parliament.uk website for an immediate general election has recently gained three million signatures at the time of writing. While many of those signing this did not do so for right-wing reasons, a basic look at the forces gathering around this petition shows who is capitalising on Starmer’s implosion. The petition has been shared and promoted not only by the Tories and Reform, but Donald Trump’s chief billionaire backer Elon Musk, who shared the petition from far-right accounts speaking out Starmer’s so-called “socialist tyrannical police state”.
Rather than combating these forces, Starmer has increasingly tried to emulate them! Following on from his visit to far-right Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, the Labour government has overseen a 30% increase in deportations of refugees and asylum seekers. Meanwhile he has tried to outflank the Tories in culture war rhetoric, describing his predecessors as carrying out a so-called “open borders experiment”.
Likewise, Starmer has heavily leaned on the calling card of ‘law and order’, overseeing the draconian jailings of numerous Palestine solidarity and climate activists from Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil for planned direct action protests. In many cases, these absurd sentences have been as long as five years, often outstripping the sentences for some of the most extreme violent crimes.
Britain is unfortunately not immune to the global growth of right-wing forces and ideas. As revealed with the election of Trump 2.0 in the United States, this is part of a worldwide trend of reactionary populist forces filling the void left by the failure of the ‘centrist’ political establishment to improve the daily situation for working class people.
Nigel Farage, a multi-billionaire privately educated banker, has clearly been emboldened by Trump’s victory, seeking to sell himself as a fake ‘antiestablishment’ figure. His efforts to court politicians on the fringes of the Tory Party are delivering results, with the high-profile defection of Andrea Jenkyns in order for her to contest the Lincolnshire mayoral election in May 2025. Alarmingly, Farage now boasts of 100,000 Reform UK members.
…but they can be stopped!
None of this means the fight is over, quite the contrary. Both Labour and the right can be effectively beaten back through mass working-class struggle. The strike action led by thousands of sixth-form educators across England and Wales on 26 November shows the potential for a fightback which can unite working class people, rather than playing into the ‘divide and rule’ logic of all the establishment parties — Reform included.
But to truly stop the right wing from turning the clock back on our rights, the workers’ movement needs a militant approach and a fighting leadership. Our unions in particular must directly take up the fight against the racist far right, using its resources and the organised strength of its six million members to massively outnumber them on the streets.
A fighting trade union movement which twins these kinds of mobilisations with a struggle for inflation-beating pay rises, huge taxes on the billionaires and nationalisation of key services like rail, mail and utilities, would be the most effective force in stopping the right. This would have the potential to show how right-wing populism, despite its ‘anti-establishment’ rhetoric, is not on the side of working-class people but the billionaires.
But for the left and the workers’ movement to truly make its mark, we need to get politically organised. This question has already been posed by the formation of the ‘Collective’ organisation of independent left councillors and organisations, including Jeremy Corbyn. These discussions must lay the basis for the launching of a new political force.
To stop the main beneficiaries of Labour’s crisis being the racist reactionary right wing, workers urgently need a new party of our own — a party of the left, based on struggle and fighting for the much-needed socialist policies to unite the working class and cut across the growth of reactionary ideas. This must be a party which not only mobilises against all anti-worker attacks and austerity measures, but takes a clear stand with the anti-war, by championing an anti-imperialist, anti-militarist programme.
Socialist Alternative is active on the streets and in the workplaces campaigning for this and much more. The capitalist system has failed, and we need a whole new system based on democratic socialist planning, solidarity and internationalism. Join our fight today!
