Keir Starmer and the future of the Labour Party

 It's been over a year since my last post. A lot of things have changed, but definitely for the better. After starting college and trying to narrow down what path I want to go down, I find myself being pulled away from writing, which I've always felt so passionate and enthralled by. I think this is due to my long break away from 'non-fiction writing' as I call it, as I moved to poetry and reading rather than writing. I hope that this piece will help me come back to writing again.  Now onto the topic... 

Keir Starmer and the future of the Labour Party. 

After the absolutely devastating result for the Labour Party in 2019, which came as a shock to me, because I was a very politically sheltered person who only followed left wing voters, I was invested in the future of the Labour Party and more importantly, what would they do now? 

Jeremy Corbyn, had policies I had always dreamt of seeing in politics. At the time of the election, I was 14, incredibly optimistic and desperate for someone to take my opinions and ideas seriously. Corbyn was, in my opinion, the embodiment of the best future the UK could ask for, with his sympathy for immigrants who had been suffering at the hands of the increasingly tough Tory Government and his passion for helping the environment, families from low income backgrounds and all public services, especially the NHS who were and still are dreadfully underfunded, understaffed and underappreciated. All these issues were and still are the most important ones to me and extremely close to my heart. Corbyn, with all his 'good', seemed to be the perfect leader, however, I know now of his 'bad' and have come to accept the unfortunate truth that the British public will never vote for someone as left wing as him. 

After studying the evolution of the Labour Party, anyone can see the clear pattern that is adopted by them. Adopting left wing policies, elected into power, policies aren't liked anymore, move to centre ground policies, elected into power, policies aren't liked anymore, move to left wing policies etc. So after the departure of Jeremy Corbyn, the move to the centre was imminent. During the leadership elections, Starmer never stood out to me, maybe due to my lack of knowledge about the Labour party or maybe just because he was boring. However now with my increased interest in politics, I find myself more intrigued by Starmer than I ever previously was.

I am intrigued about his style: the ever so gentle attacks to Johnson at PMQs reflecting his legal background, the business-like approach to social media and increasingly dubious lack of vision and aim. I find myself constantly questioning what he is trying to achieve, but maybe that is due to the party's current position as opposition, which leaves little room for their own party campaigning and dictation of policy. However, with the shadow cabinet flopping all over the place, I am finding it increasingly difficult to defend my support for them. Just this week, Angela Rayner, the deputy leader, said 'shoot first, ask questions second' which seems utterly bizarre and extremely dangerous to me. To encourage violence towards people, specifically 'terror suspects', will in turn increase in more violence against normal people which seems to be a complete abandonment of the party's social justice stance. 

I will say this, nevertheless, Keir Starmer is an intelligent man, incredibly talented at remaining calm under the hollering from the Conservative Party and next to Johnson, is an extremely good option as a leader. However, if a leadership election takes place, and anyone else wins (Sunak, Truss), I think Starmer will be in a rough position. On his own, he has a weak policy stance, a weak shadow cabinet who are still quite divided amongst themselves and he is facing an increasingly annoyed electorate who just want someone else to take over. Unfortunately, I don't believe Starmer has enough popularity on his own to win back the previous 'Red Wall' voters or even hold onto the middle class liberal vote. I wish I didn't believe this, but I find myself questioning him more than I am impressed with him.

The future of the Labour Party is bleak to me. With an ongoing lack of vision and a mighty division still raging in the lower ranks, I find it hard to believe we will have a Labour government in the next ten years, despite my absolute wish for one. We can only hope for some change to come soon, so we can be rid of this disastrous Tory government. 

Thanks for reading, any feedback would be appreciated in the comments or to my email leahdotnott@gmail.com or instagram @leah_nott. 

ALL MY OWN OPINIONS