So there it is folks, a Labour Party win that Stevie Wonder could have seen coming has taken place.
Arise, Sir Keir Starmer, wettest wipe of them all, the most-dead eyed of robocops.
Before we dive into why none of this is cause for celebration, let’s take a quick look at what Starms has said on his campaign trail.
He got the support of shitrag, the Sun:
'I am delighted to have the support and the backing of The Sun. I think that shows just how much this is a changed Labour Party, back in the service of working people.' pic.twitter.com/y9L4LMXwyw
— j (@jrc1921) July 3, 2024
He continued his transphobia by saying trans women don’t belong in single-sex spaces:
🚨 BREAKING: Keir Starmer says that trans women should be banned from women-only spaces.
Asked if trans women (even those with GRCs) have the right to use women's spaces, Starmer said: "No. They don’t have that right. They shouldn’t".
(Via The Times) pic.twitter.com/OTeNBJqaWI
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) July 2, 2024
Not for the first time, he joined in on a right-wing talking point by blaming refugees on small boats, and wouldn’t even commit to establishing safe routes for said refugees:
"Would you increase the number of safe routes?"
Keir Starmer: "I don't think safe routes is the answer to the vile trade that's being run to put people into small boats" pic.twitter.com/FsWpjJNz14
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 10, 2024
And, it’s hard to forget his deeply racist comments on Bangladeshi people in the UK:
Lots of anger among the British Bangladeshi community about these comments from Keir Starmer
“I’ll make sure we got planes going off…back to the countries where people came from.
“At the moment people coming from Bangladesh are not being removed.”pic.twitter.com/dqwIhRgOti
— Shehab Khan ITV (@ShehabKhan) June 26, 2024
If you only came into existence when sad sack Sunak called the election, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Starmer was the right-wing candidate. The Labour leader is beyond merely pushing Labour to the centre. Actually, he’s churning out right-wing policies that are an insult to an actual working-class movement.
Labour: a muted reaction
As the old adage goes, elections aren’t won – they’re lost. It’s not so much that Labour won, as much as the Tories lost. And, as Sky News’ Sam Coates pointed out:
Voters everywhere seem to dislike existing governments of all stripes – Tory in Westminster, SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales – and there have been massive drops in support for all: the single biggest dynamic in this vote.
We’ve had over a decade of food banks, callous deportations, the Windrush scandal, the Grenfell tragedy, tens of thousands of dead disabled people, cost of living crisis after cost of living crisis, soaring energy prices, PPE scandals, ministers partying while people died from Covid – do we need to go on?
The Tories have removed themselves from government. And Labour? Well, do any of those statements from Starmer above suggest he’s remotely interested in helping the most vulnerable in our society? Do they fuck.
As economic justice campaigner Richard Murphy explained, it’s not that Labour won – it’s that the Tories lost:
This is telling. Labour has not won. The Tories lost and the SNP have lost, whilst Reform and the Greens have won, and the LibDems have been exceedingly organised. But Labour has not won hearts and minds. Not in the slightest. pic.twitter.com/fg0W5vmGA4
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) July 5, 2024
Red Tory vs Blue Tory
Functionally, there is no longer a difference between Labour and the Tories:
The end of 14 years of Blue Tory rule, and the beginning of years of Red Tory rule.
Congrats everyone on this incredible change 🥳🎉
— Fatima (@fatimazsaid) July 4, 2024
Ultimately, what it comes down to is:
I have long dreamed of a Labour government and I think only now it has hit me that this is a Labour government that does not believe in a free Palestine, does not believe trans people deserve to live their lives, will not fight to end child poverty in this country
— JPH (@jessyjph) July 4, 2024
To his eternal shame, Starmer has chosen the dogwhistles of transphobia and small boats – exactly the same as self-professed right-wingers:
Pause. When butter costs £2 and olive oil costs £7 and rent in the capital city is about a grand for a room – the key concerns at this general election has been … gender and migrants ?
— c.s lewisham 🇵🇸 (@skyenotruby) July 5, 2024
Don’t get us wrong, it’s still hilarious that this shower got the boot:
My favourite Tory defeats so far:
Michael Fabricant, the larval form of David Dickinson
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a haunted dildo with the moral depth of a graphene scorpion
Penny Mordaunt off Battlestar Galactica, who now has to return to her day job of Not Being In The Royal Navy
— Russ Jones (@RussInCheshire) July 5, 2024
However, we have endless rage for charlatans like Jess Phillips – who was busy smirking at Corbyn’s loss in 2019 whilst now claiming in 2024 that politics “has got caustic and nasty”:
Jess was a lot happier in 2019 https://t.co/ce7shv3P5K pic.twitter.com/AtXphMGJEV
— j (@jrc1921) July 5, 2024
Yeah, it’s hard when the electorate respond to your words and actions innit, Jess?
The thing that we kept coming back to last night, though, was Palestine.
Gaza
Just as he has with almost every other vulnerable group in the country, Starmer has failed to stand with Palestine, as Hamza Yusuf reported:
Keir Starmer is a friend of Israel. It would be an easy task to use his unstinting support for Israel as it continues to pulverise Gaza as the exclusive evidence of that.
Yusuf continued:
The now infamous endorsement on LBC of Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians as Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant declared a total siege and cut off all water, food and power was reprehensible.
The decision to whip his party to vote against a ceasefire when Israel had already killed more than 10,000 Palestinians and to later reprimand an MP for daring to suggest the killing on an industrial scale in Gaza amounts to genocide is unforgivable.
Starmer has, in his own words, said:
I support Zionism without qualification.
This hasn’t gone unnoticed:
When I wake up tomorrow there will be a new government in the UK and millions will pretend everything is back to normal now the tories are gone, but in Gaza the genocide will still carry on, with full support from the new prime minister
— Chris (@chriskunzler) July 4, 2024
Last night, our Twitter feed was a mix of election reaction and horrific footage of a young child in Gaza with half her face blown off:
Today's footage from Gaza is somehow worse than even what we've seen before. A terrified young girl with her jaw blown off. A child's dismembered head carefully placed in a body bag by a rescue worker.
No joy, no celebration tonight in this corner of the UK. There is work to do.
— Rohan Talbot (@rohantalbot) July 4, 2024
my god that video of the little girl with half her jaw hanging off, and my feed is full of exit polls saying a party that consistently defended this savagery is winning a landslide. irredeemable cesspit of a country.
— sara (@yasaritaa) July 4, 2024
how can you see just one image of the millions of galling scenes out of Gaza in the past nine months and not want to burn it all to the fucking ground? what could possibly be wrong with you, as a human? are you even human? or is this the human condition? I hate humanity if so
— Jennine K (@jennineak) July 4, 2024
Nobody expected the Tories to support Palestine, but it shouldn’t be unreasonable to expect a Labour leader to do so. However, that’s exactly the kind of leader Starmer is: cowardly, right-wing, and terrifying.
Nothing but us
Often minorities and other vulnerable groups are told – ‘vote tactically now, your turn will come’.
The truth is, there is no help coming. There is nothing but ourselves.
If there’s one thing we can learn from the Corbyn era it’s that the British public were given a rare offering of a political vision that would actually serve the most vulnerable in society. It turned that down – because saying “wait your turn” is actually just “never”:
Can’t believe people want me to hold my nose and vote for 2009 tories wearing a red jacket and they couldn’t do the same for a progressive Labour Party in 2019 lmaooo jog on mate
— notbri.sol (@Xhakaed) July 3, 2024
Mainstream media, and right-wing members of the public who are reluctant to call themselves so, will delight in asking people to vote tactically, to hold their nose, to wait their turn. Doing so is exactly what liberalism is about – having no political vision beyond #ToriesOut maintains the status quo and keeps things ticking over while the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer:
Parliamentary politics will not save us. These politicians will not save us. Whoever wins will inevitably serve the interest of this imperialist country. What will save and liberate us is organised community resistance. Regardless of the results we will continue organise!
— Sara Bafo (@SaraSabriye) July 4, 2024
The political circus is one small part of what we actually can – and need – to do for each other.
These rich and privileged wankers don’t care about us. They’ve shown that time and time again.
It’s heartening to have independent campaigns but parliamentary politics will never be the source of our freedom. Mutual aid, unionism, and abolition is.
We move.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Guardian News
