How well is Starmer doing as Labour leader?

As we prepare to say goodbye to the god-awful year that has been 2020, we pause for a moment to take stock in all the ways this year has been less than we hoped. Keir Starmer became Labour leader this year and although recent polls show a slight overall preference for Labour (40% vs 37% for the Tories) I had expected Labour to be further ahead at the end of a year when the economy crashed and the government mishandled a serious disease outbreak.

There’s also the fact that we were assured numerous times during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership that any other leader would be 20 points ahead and that Starmer in particular was the man to lead Labour to the sunlit uplands of a 1997 style majority.

Policy commitments

Anyway, Starmer is the leader now, for better or worse, so how well is he doing? Well, many (if not everyone) who consider themselves to be a Labour socialists or on the left of the Labour Party are not happy with Starmer's leadership. From abstaining on the Spy Cops bill to suspending Corbyn, Labour socialists have been provided with many reasons to be narked.

This annoyance with Starmer goes deeper than specific issues, even hot button issues such as the Spy Cops bill or Corybn’s response to the EHRC report. Many Labour socialists, myself included, say that what we want from the Labour Party are left-wing policies, i.e. commitments to actually doing things to improve the country. Many also claim that it is Starmer’s lack of commitment to Corbyn’s (largely popular) policy platform that is the source of their anger with him.

A typical example is Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds saying that Labour has ruled out a commitment to Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the next Labour manifesto. This didn’t go down well on my Twitter timeline (storm in a teacup, perhaps) and was seen as further evidence of the lack of left-wing policy from this opposition.

The five week wait

Looking beyond the headlines, Starmer’s Labour Party is still committed to many solid left-wing policies. These include reforming Universal Credit (UC), taxing the top 5% of earners and the Green Recovery (aka the Green New Deal).

Yes, Labour have announced that they will not seek to implement UBI in power, but they will instead change the amount of time that a new UC claimant has to wait for their first payment, which is currently five weeks. Dodds said: “People waiting five weeks for social security doesn’t make sense.”

The five week wait for UC causes immense suffering for the poorest people in society. If you need welfare, being made to wait five weeks for it drives people to destitution and homelessness. Changing or scrapping the five week wait is desperately needed.

The vibe of politics

Many Labour socialists who don’t like Starmer have argued that he will go back on this and his other policy commitments before the next general election, offering more centrist policies instead. This might be the case, but for now there is a raft of left-wing policy that Labour is committed too, from climate change to housing.

Can Labour socialists who are angry at Starmer see the future? Maybe, and you rarely lose money betting that the Labour Party will disappoint you. However, from where I stand, there is every chance that Starmer will offer a policy platform in the next general election that is to the left of the one Ed Miliband offered in 2015. So why are all the policy loving Labour socialists so disappointed in Starmer?

Stephen Bush, the political editor of the New Statesman, has said many times your impression of a politician is mainly about the vibe that is given off and not about specific policies or statements. He has also said that left-wing Labour members’ dissatisfaction with Starmer is because they don’t like his vibe. I think Bush is right. I must admit that I don’t like the Starmer vibe either. I don’t like how he talks about respect for the troops or the police like he’s ticking off the Daily Mail’s list of the most important people.

The vibe is not good. But the policy is

I don’t like the vibe of Starmer telling Labour MPs to abstain on a bill to expand the clandestine powers of the state in order to appear tough on security. (Also, how do you appear tough by essentially doing nothing?) I’m sure there’s worse vibes to come, probably on immigration and some stupid culture war issue that the right-wing press will make really important to cause pain for Labour.

This said, I’m willing to accept the shitty middle England vibe, if it’s in exchange for the policies that are being offered, such as an end to the five week wait or the green recovery, or more money for schools and hospitals, or steps to tackle homelessness and the huge numbers of people with insecure accommodation. Mouthing Daily Mail talking points about the troops and the flag costs nothing, despite the fact that I personally find it distasteful.

The policies that Starmer is offering are not my first choice. I would prefer Universal Basic Income as part of a Labour government’s welfare policy. The environmental policy that Labour ultimately offers in the next general election is likely to be more moderate than the one I would prefer, but there’s every chance that it will rise to meet the challenge of the looming environmental disaster.

Put your vote where your mouth is

I’m still willing to vote and advocate (to my tiny following) for The Labour Party as they’re offering policies to improve the lives of many people, including the poorest and most disadvantaged in society.

When Starmer became Labour leader, I assumed that I wouldn’t like some of the things he would say, such as praising the army or Winston Churchill, but if he’s willing to actually do something about poverty, homelessness and the environment then he’ll be worth voting for.

A hill to die on

Many Labour socialists who claim to dislike Starmer because of his abandonment of left-wing policies, are responding to the vibe he gives off. As Bush has said, the point where the vibe went bad for many Labour socialists was when Starmer sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey from the Shadow Cabinet. Their estimation of him then continued to go downhill with Starmer’s handling of the EHRC report.

My own view is that Starmer has mishandled the publication of the EHRC report and the suspension of Corbyn has turned this into an even bigger inter-party row than was needed. Corbyn is entitled to make a statement in his defense following the publication of the EHRC report, but at the same time Labour needs to do more to tackle antisemitism. A big intra-party row doesn’t help with putting in place a process to kick antisemites out of the Labour Party or help Labour rebuild its public image as a party that is against discrimination.

It turns out that the hill that many Labour socialists are willing to die on is the argument that antisemitism has been weaponised against Corbyn. I don’t think that everyone on the left of the Labour Party is an antisemite or that it’s antisemitic to support Corbyn. I also don’t think that the treatment of Corbyn by the current Labour leader is the biggest issue facing the left right now. The fact that unless we stop capitalism's uncontrolled rampage through the natural environment the outside world will look like The Desert of The Real from The Matrix by 2100 is the most important issue in politics.

Pro-welfare reform. Anti-environmental collapse

That’s the hill I am willing to die on. Probably literally. The most important dividing line in politics is between those who want to do what it takes to stop the looming environmental disaster and those who think dealing with it can be deferred (or that small adjustments will make the difference). Another crucial division is between those who genuinely want to use the state to help the least fortunate in society and those who want to use it to funnel money towards their mates. Next to these issues, internal Labour Party beef matters about as much as a fart in one of those tornadoes made out of fire that they have in Australia now.

Maybe it will be revealed that Starmer doesn’t take the looming climate threat seriously enough to commit Labour to the necessary radical reforms to protect the continued existence of the human race. Maybe he will go back on commitments to policies that will help the poorest in society to try to win the votes of Daily Mail reading curtain-twitchers. If so, then I wouldn’t be able to justify voting for him. Until then, a vote for Labour remains the best way to make society better.

I’m not about to run out and get a Starmer tattoo or claim he’s the greatest Labour leader ever, but if Labour socialists are serious about wanting left-wing policy then that’s still what Labour stands for. The fight for left-wing policy should be the hill we are willing to die on and the fact that we don’t like the vibe - however disappointingly Sainsbury’s Saturday afternoon shopping trip the vibe is. So far Starmer still has my vote, but it’s a long time until the next election so I’ll have to keep watching.

"File:Official portrait of Keir Starmer crop 1.jpg" by Chris McAndrew is licensed under CC BY 3.0