“A Reform win would be bad. But a Green win would be existential.” These were the words of a senior Labour figure, quoted anonymously in The Times newspaper, when the Gorton and Denton by-election campaign was only beginning.
Well, the Greens did win. And the crisis of the Labour government is indeed existential (i.e life or death). Starmer began the year fighting for his political life, and this defeat could tip him over the edge. After all, he personally sacrificed this election to save his own skin by blocking Andy Burnham’s candidacy.
Even if this result doesn’t bring Starmer down for now, it is just a warm-up for the much more generalised pummeling Labour receives in the May elections in England, Scotland and Wales. It remains a case of when, not if, he goes. And it couldn’t be any more deserved.
The Gorton and Denton by-election is electorally existential for Labour for two reasons. The obvious one is plain and simple: their vote is collapsing. It went down by half in this seat compared with 2024. MPs and staffers will be frantically worrying, ‘are there any safe Labour seats left’?
But this defeat also shows how it could still get a lot worse. The government has been widely hated for some time now. Labour strategists know it, but they had been clinging to one vain hope. They hoped that the rise of Reform (which they have relentlessly fuelled) would allow them to survive, with electoral contests reduced to ‘two-horse races’ between the government and far right. They hoped that this could, yet again, trick working-class people into holding their noses and voting Labour.
But Gorton and Denton, just like the Caerphilly by-election last year, showed that it’s not working this time. The most politically aware workers and youth do indeed hate Reform, but they also hate Starmer’s government of war-mongering racism and austerity. People are looking to defeat Reform not by propping up the government, but via an option to the left of Labour. That’s what the Greens’ victory here, and Plaid Cymru’s victory in Caerphilly represents.
Of course, Labour will try to twist and turn to avoid extinction. They will change leader, and could well attempt to project a shift to the left. Socialist Alternative’s position is clear: we do not call for the government to ‘change course’ or have illusions in a new PM from the so-called ‘soft left’. The time has come to bury Labour and build something new – a real mass socialist party based on working-class struggle.
The Mandelson Affair
The rottenness of this regime has also been expressed by its direct connection with the international ring of billionaire abusers which is being revealed by the Epstein files. Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson not despite his connection to Epstein, but because of what it represented about Mandelson. He was appointed because he was comfortable moving in the sick circles of the depraved ruling elite.
This was a man who made his name by proudly leading the capture of the Labour Party for the billionaire class. He famously stated that New Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”. It turns out he was seemingly intensely relaxed about the heinous crimes of the filthy rich too.
Socialists Alternative’s forerunners argued in the 1990s that the Blairite capture of Labour represented its ‘bourgeoisification’ (i.e its conversion into an out-and-out capitalist party). There is no clearer illustration of this than Mandelson’s torrid dealings. And the leader of it all, Tony Blair, now sits on Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ (which is actually a board of occupation and genocide) to cap it all off.
Reform Can Be Beaten! All Out for 28 March
It must also be said that Gorton and Denton was a terrible outing for Reform. They have now been resoundingly defeated in two recent major elections which they went all out to win. They are discovering that it is all well and good to lead the polls, but when two-thirds of the country passionately hates you, it can be hard to win elections.
At the same time, the very serious danger which their rise represents is becoming clearer by the day. Their racist candidate in Gorton essentially promised to punish women for not breeding enough (while simultaneously promising to take benefits from those who do have children). The unveiling of Farage’s ‘front bench’ was accompanied by a slew of nasty policy announcements.
Zia Yusuf promised to set up a British version of Trump’s anti-immigration outfit ICE, named the ‘UK Deportation Command’. Richard Tice announced that Reform would pass a “Great Repeal Act” to eliminate workers’ and renters’ rights. He also pledged to restart the environmentally suicidal policy of fracking, previously banned following mass protests against this epitome of capitalist climate-killing exploitation.
In fighting to prevent these dangerous racists from coming to power, there is no room for complacency. They will not be pushed back by pro-capitalist parties who ape their rhetoric. The Battle of Minneapolis in the US, which Trump lost following a general strike, shows that it is working-class struggle that can defeat the right.
In Britain, the single most important task for anti-racists and anti-fascists this month is the building of an historic mass demonstration on 28 March in London. Socialist Alternative is working to build a socialist Your Party bloc on the protest to give voice to a real, socialist alternative to far-right poison.
A New Chapter for Your Party?
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that a secondary reason for the Green’s victory in Gorton and Denton is the fact that Your Party’s birth as a political force has been so painful. If those in control of the process had acted audaciously, and mobilised the 800,000 people who signed up last summer into a mass, democratic party with socialist policies, it quite literally could have been Your Party fighting its way to victory in such a by-election today.
Instead, a conservative and bureaucratic approach saw endless delays and factional maneuvering plague the process, while the world passed by. Zack Polanski has been able to partly fill the vacuum.
However, Your Party is still both deeply necessary and full of potential. Already the biggest socialist party since World War II, if it turns outwards to build itself in working-class communities and struggles, it can grow much further in the coming period. While the Green Party’s shift to the left under Polanski must be welcomed, it does not address the need for a mass socialist party of struggle.
Your Party’s first leadership election resulted in a Central Executive Committee on which the supporters of the party’s hitherto leadership – organised in ‘The Many’ slate – hold a majority. This means that the party’s active membership will need to continue and deepen our independent organisation, to put pressure on the CEC and campaign for maximum member democracy, a bold outwards turn and a fighting socialist programme.
Socialist Alternative campaigned for an opposing slate in the CEC elections – Grassroots Left, which was backed by Zarah Sultana MP – which won an important minority of seats. We will continue to play our part in fighting for the party we need.
It is time to get organised! Your Party’s painful birth has demonstrated that Labour 2.0 reformism is not enough. Socialist Alternative is an international revolutionary socialist organisation, which is organised within Your Party in England, Wales and Scotland. If you agree, then join our struggle today!
