Editorial of the Socialist issue 1368
‘Ungovernable Britain’ is the phrase coined by the capitalist press in the days since the 7 May elections. It refers to the fact that Britain could be on course for its sixth prime minister in seven years.
The Labour government is in turmoil, dealt a heavy blow by working-class anger at the polls. It is undermined by deep unpopularity earned by its first two years, in which it has attacked sections of the working class and continued to preside over crumbling public services and now the beginnings of a new cost-of-living crisis.
Clearly anticipating his future precarity, and in tandem with his purge of the Corbynism from Labour, in 2021 Keir Starmer actually increased the percentage of MPs required to trigger a leadership contest from 10% to 20%. So far that appears to have meant health secretary Wes Streeting was unable to find the required number of MPs to support his candidature.
Burnham’s return?
Instead, Labour MPs are looking to a politician without even a seat in parliament as a way out of the mess. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, having been blocked by Starmer loyalists from standing in the February Gorton and Denton by-election, has now been given the all-clear to contest for a by-election for the Makerfield seat in Lancashire. Burnham is not in Westminster and therefore has avoided the huge unpopularity experienced by most Labour figures. He gained his ‘King of the North’ moniker because he was seen as standing up to the Tory government during the second wave of Covid in Autumn 2020, although he soon retreated on his demand for extra funding.
Burnham may not currently be an insider in the House of Commons; he is not an outsider though. In fact he has previously served 16 years as a Labour MP including voting for the Iraq war, as a minister under Blair, as a cabinet member under Brown with a role in the Treasury, as billions of pounds of austerity cuts were sketched out in the 2007 spending review. He stood for Labour leader against Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, and campaigned for Starmer against the left in the 2020 leadership election, telling the Guardian: “Keir is a brilliant man.”
As veteran Labour right-winger Margaret Hodge put it on Radio 4, referencing the Socialist Party’s history as the Militant Tendency: “This is not about a Militant presence. This isn’t a squabble about ideology, it’s about emphasis.”
For Burnham to challenge for leader, he first has to win in Makerfield. The by-election could take place as soon as 18 June. But as recently as 7 May, Reform UK won 50% of the votes in the council wards that make up the constituency. For the best chance of winning he will have to present himself as being at odds with Starmer, arguing: ‘If you want Starmer out, vote Burnham’. And to win a leadership election he, like any challenger to Starmer, would have to pitch left. Burnham is certainly presenting himself as to the left of Starmer, calling for council house building and to “put more things back under stronger public control”.
The cost of Britain’s government borrowing increased to its highest level since 2008 as Starmer moved closer to being faced by a challenge. A Financial Times feature on ‘who do gilt investors want to lead Britain?’ put Burnham as “the biggest threat to the gilt market among the frontrunners”. Tellingly though, one investor said Burnham’s apparent popularity might mean he is better able to “carry unpopular decisions on fiscal policy”. Since, he has said, “I support the fiscal rules”. He has also said that he wants to make Labour “a party that’s solidly on the side of working-class people.” The two can’t be reconciled.
The crisis facing the capitalists is the choice between an extremely unpopular prime minister in Keir Starmer, unable to command the support of his MPs to continue to rule for the bosses and attack the working class. Or an alternative, whoever it is, who they fear will be more vulnerable to working-class pressure and therefore less willing to attack the working class. Under the impact of this insoluble dilemma, Labour’s current infighting could turn into splits and fractures.
Capitalist decay
The years of economic stagnation, brutal austerity and periods of rising cost of living have eroded illusions that the capitalist system can offer a decent future. That is at root of the collapse of support for the capitalist establishment parties, and the erosion of authority of all the establishment institutions.
It is more important than ever for the trade unions to fight for independent political representation. The number of motions and debates taking place at this year’s union conferences to discuss unions’ relationships with Labour is an indication of the pressure union leaders are coming under. Undoubtedly in the main they will continue to bang the drum of lesser evilism, that it is necessary to continue to support Labour to defeat right-populist Reform. A new Labour leader pitching to the left of Starmer will be used as part of that too.
That strategy to beat Reform is destined to fail. Backing from the workers’ organisations for a capitalist establishment party – discredited among huge sections of the working class and presiding over a system in crisis in which the working class is being made to pay for the bosses’ crisis – undermines the authority of the trade unions and in fact rolls out the carpet for the right.
Working-class struggle
A trade union lead in a fight to defend living standards, uniting sections of the working class against racism and other attempts at division, is the best means to cut across support for Reform. The National Shop Stewards Network conference in London on 27 June, bringing together the most militant trade union fighters, is set to discuss what strategy and political programme is needed to address the approaching new surge in the cost-of-living crisis.
As part of her campaign for re-election for general secretary of Unite, which Socialist Party members are supporting, Sharon Graham has raised the idea of the union developing its own workers’ manifesto. That leads to the question of what kind of vehicle is needed to fight for those policies. Socialist Party members are raising the demand for the unions to organise a cross-union conference to discuss working-class political representation.
All capitalist politicians can be forced under mass pressure to make concessions to the working class, at least temporarily, even as the system compels them to attempt to roll them back. Whatever the outcome of a potential future Labour leadership election, the need for the trade unions to lead in the development of a mass workers’ party – a decisive form of workers’ pressure – remains, and under the impact of phases of capitalist crisis becomes ever more pressing.
