Most people in Britain are not happy with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party government. And that’s not only because of the prime minister’s despicable support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Labour: tanking – but why?
A new YouGov poll shows that the main reasons Labour is haemorrhaging support right now, making it the third party in British politics just months after the brutal collapse of the Tories handed it an easy election victory. If neoliberals hadn’t retaken Labour and put it back in the hands of corporate lobbyists, the party may have actually used its electoral supermajority to really help Britain at a time when the rich seemed to be getting richer and the poor poorer. But because Labour is currently a hollow shell of its former self, it has chosen to let ordinary people down instead.
According to the poll, people who voted Labour in 2024 but are no longer planning to vote for them in the future said the main reasons the government’s:
- Winter Fuel Allowance scandal (35%)
- Failure to cut the cost of living (33%)
- Failure to improve public services (26%)
- Breaking of too many promises (25%)
- Failure to challenge the rich and powerful (23%)
Nothing forced Starmer to push voters away. In fact, you would expect most of these issues to be no-brainers for a socialist policy-maker. But Starmer is not a socialist, and nor is his government. And that’s why, in spite of the facts above, he’s trying to suck up to the right and attack the left rather than placing blame for Britain’s problems where it lies – on the privatising policies of previous governments and the massive levels of inequality they have caused.
https://twitter.com/SteveAkehurst/status/1882379502711632194/photo/1
But why aren’t the government’s participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its failure to tackle the climate crisis more of a problem for voters?
Why not Starmer’s awful positions on Gaza or the environment?
The simple answer is propaganda. Many traditional Labour voters clearly care about solidarity, understanding the link between the wellbeing of other people and their own. But the billionaire-owned mainstream media has been fully committed to covering for Israel’s genocidal war criminals and hiding the British government’s support for them. They’ve helped the state to smear anti-genocide protesters and confuse the issues for people who are not actively following the news. And that’s hardly surprising, because billionaires tend to support Israel.
It’s the same situation with the environment. The “CO2 emissions from just 50 billionaires exceed those of world’s poorest 155 million people”, producing “on average more carbon through their investments, private jets and superyachts in under three hours than the average Brit does in their entire lifetime”. This disinterest in the destruction of the planet and the climate crisis pushes them to “fund a network of organisations that seek to prevent effective environmental action”. And at the same time, some will even cynically exploit opportunities to make money from the opposite side, even if they don’t really care. There’s a reason why escaping into space is so popular among billionaires.
Starmer’s corporate cronies refuse to challenge the rich and powerful because they’re in bed with them. That’s why they prefer to attack environmentalists and anti-genocide protesters who don’t have immense resources, and it’s why they prefer to focus on right-wing talking points rather than addressing the issues most important to the people who voted for them.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn completely understood the danger of billionaire control of the media, and it’s why he believed in wholescale media reform. Starmer, on the other hand, has submitted to the corporate media overlords. That’s why the country doesn’t like him. It’s why he’s haemorrhaging votes. And it’s why he’s empowering the far right with his privatisation of the Labour Party’s soul.
Featured image via the Canary
