Starmer’s Big Tent Springs a Leak

One of the key features of Tony Blair’s Labour Party, and later government, was his attempt to create a big tent in the center of British politics. Big tent politics aim to bring together an array of differing views on a range of subjects. Blair worked with the Liberal Democrat leader at the time, the late Paddy Ashdown, and even considered having Lib Dem MPs in his cabinet. 


Keir Starmer, Britain's opposition Labour Party leader speaks during question period at the House of Commons in London, Britain June 17, 2020. UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Handout via REUTERS
Keir Starmer, Britain's opposition Labour Party leader speaks during question period at the House of Commons in London, Britain June 17, 2020. UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Handout via REUTERS
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WESTMINISTER (Labour Buzz) - The case against the big tent - made by both the Labour left and the Conservative right - was that the variety of views could lead to some pretty insurmountable conflicts of interest, which there is some evidence for in the latter part of the New Labour government. Electorally, Blair’s big tent was a success in that it appealed to almost anyone regardless, or in some cases despite, their personal political views. 

The New Labour tent was discarded by the beginning of the last decade, debilitated by issues of their own creating and left flapping in the wind, virtually empty, along with big tents of centrist parties all over the world. 

When Sir Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party this year, he aimed to unite all factions of the party and was cautious in his appeal to the pro-Corbyn membership. The range of views in the Labour Party made this seem a useful strategy for turning the negatives, infighting and a chasm of differing opinion, into positives. 

Last week, Starmer ejected his leadership rival Shadow Education Secretary, and standard-bearer of the Corbyn left, Rebecca Long-Bailey from his big tent on the left, because she shared an interview with actor Maxine Peake which contained an alleged antisemitic conspiracy theory. Criticisms exasperated over the weekend as Black Lives Matters UK said: “As a public prosecutor, Sir Kier Starmer was a cop in an expensive suit." In response to his dismissal of calls to defund police. 

Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges described the issue of defunding police on Twitter as an elephant trap that Starmer had dodged. 

Labour Togethers’ 2019 election review published last week, revealed that while there are divisions among potential Labour voters on cultural issues, with a coherent economic case, electoral cut through to the public is possible. 

By engaging with these cultural issues, as he has done with Black Lives Matters, Starmer will undoubtedly appeal more to the types of voters Labour lost in 2019. What is not clear, is whether the activist left of the party, many of whom joined in 2015 to elect Jeremy Corbyn and are active in Black Lives Matter, would mobilise to support Keir Starmer come election time. 

Campaigning groups like Momentum, although more successful in 2017 than last year, are now an essential component of the Labour campaign machine, one whose absence may mean Labour will struggle to reach young voters. The question lies, can Starmer utilise the economic consensus, that  Labour Together suggests exists, and if this requires him to sidestep the culture war, can he do so without losing too many people out the side door of his big tent? 

That is the real challenge for Labour going into the next general election.

 

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