Starmer’s Shambolic Thursday

The Hartlepool by-election loss indicates an overall poor performance for the Labour party and highlights Starmer’s inability to regain voter trust despite his promises of a new and reformed Labour.

Super Thursday indicated a shambolic performance for the Labour Party under the leadership of Keir Starmer. Hoping to reign in a more centrist stance to the Labour Party after the long spell of Corbynism, which was seen as ‘too radical’ for moderate party members, there was a glimpse of hope after December 2019 for a new Labour that would attract more support from middle-class voters and pry away from Corbynism. However, was this Labour strategy completely wrong? With the loss of Labour’s core working-class constituencies in the 2019 General Election, surely the party’s priority post-election would be on how to reclaim this core from the Conservatives. The restructuring of the party saw the departures of Abbott, Long-Bailey and Mcdonnell and more from Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet who were seen as more ‘ left leaning’, and were replaced with the likes of more ‘moderate’ Labour MPs such as Milliband, Nandy and Dodds. The party was completely revamped to suit this centre-left stance and to stray entirely away from Corbynism. Indeed, revamping the party was needed, but in doing so the Party refrained from what should have been its priority: reclaiming support from its working-class core.

The results of the Hartlepool by-election on Thursday confirmed the fundamental issues with Keir’s Labour and how over a year after the loss of the Red Wall, Labour continues to struggle with the same problem they have struggled with since 2019. Despite the many scandals regarding corruption in awarding PPE contracts, to Dominic Cummings lockdown violations and their overall management of coronavirus, Conservative support remains ahead of Labour, especially amongst Labour’s working-class core. YouGov's survey on Westminster voting intention for the C2DE working class being 48% for Conservatives and 29% for Labour. This alongside Thursday’s loss, exemplifies Starmer’s incompetence in providing a strong and clear narrative that can capture an emotive connection that appeals to voters. Due to this many are feeling politically homeless, with party dealignment continuing to rise, Starmer has a long way to reconstruct the Labour party and regain the trust of its core voters as well as the common populace.