A-Infos (en) UK. ACG: The May Elections and After: The Labour Leadership Contest (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The May councillor and mayoral elections showed the shifting ground of 
British politics. The two main establishment parties, Labour and the 
Conservatives, were decimated, and many, well those who bothered to 
vote, did so against the attacks both had led against working conditions 
and living standards of the working class.  This disgust was expressed 
in Wales and in Scotland with votes for the nationalist parties, which 
adopt centrist to left social democratic language.  Labour lost almost 
1500 council seats, in England, whilst the Tories, with a much reduced 
1,300 seats, lost a further 600 seats.

However, the biggest benefactors were the far-right populists of Reform, 
who won roughly 30% of the council seats up for grabs, including 14 
councils. These included traditional Labour strongholds like Barnsley, 
Gateshead, and Sandwell. They came second after the Plaid Cymru 
nationalists in Wales and in Scotland grabbed 16% of the vote.

Farage and Reform are exploiting the anger felt by many with successive 
Tory and Labour governments, and fanning the flames of racism in British 
society.  Many were disgusted with the way the Starmer government 
carried on with austerity measures like previous Tory governments. The 
vote for Reform appears to be higher in the most deprived areas.  On the 
other hand, some working class voters voted tactically to block Reform. 
This wasn't by any means a guaranteed vote for Labour, as the Greens won 
500 councillors, an increase of more than 400.

In fact, the Greens seem to be filling the vacuum of social-democracy 
relinquished by Labour, with increasingly left-sounding promises. The 
nationalists of Plaid Cymru and the SNP use similar rhetoric to gain 
working class votes. Zack Polanski referred to the Greens as the 
'workers party', and put forward a charter for workers.

However, like Green Parties in other parts of the world, and indeed with 
already sitting Green councillors and councils in the UK, the hopes of 
the Green Party posing a genuine alternative will soon be dashed. In 
over 40 councils they have helped implement cuts just like the rest. 
Where they now have wrested control, will they refuse to implement 
austerity measures?

Well, Polanski has said that councils have no choice in implementing 
cuts because it's due to the decisions of central government. No mention 
of local organising of workers and local people in alliance with 
intransigent councillors, or a cartel of councils pledging to refuse to 
implement cuts. This doesn't even enter his head!

The Labour government is deeply unpopular as a result of its first two 
years, where it attacked pensioners and pursued policies that showed it 
was jettisoning any idea of welfarism and left rhetoric. It blatantly is 
pro-business and pro-market.

Starmer sought to block any contenders to leadership of Labour back in 
2021 when he increased the percentage of MPs needed to set off a contest 
from 10% to 20%. This has blocked the former Health Secretary Wes 
Streeting, himself an alternative Starmer, with a record of viciously 
attacking the NHS, and indeed, if anything, more Blairite than Starmer.

Sections of the Labour Party are panicking that under Starmer they will 
lose the next election. They are looking to Andy Burnham, Mayor of 
Greater Manchester, as someone to replace Starmer.

Andy Burnham is no fiery left winger. He supported the Iraq war when he 
was a MP, voting for the invasion of Iraq. He served as a minister under 
Blair, and over the next ten years he voted to block any independent 
inquiry into the war. He then opportunistically started to say that he 
regretted the war when he became Mayor of Manchester. Whilst in 
Parliament, he abstained on opposing welfare cuts proposed by the Tory 
government. He made it abundantly clear when Corbyn was elected Labour 
leader, that he was dissociating himself from the whole phenomenon of 
Corbynism. He supported Starmer in the 2020 leadership contest.

In addition, he was an important member of Labour Friends of Israel 
whilst in parliament, and has spoken regularly at their events. He says 
that Israel would be the first country he would visit if he became Prime 
Minister. He is a confirmed supporter of the Zionist state.

Now, however, in order to win the leadership election, (that is if he is 
actually elected MP in Makerfield) he has to pose as to the left of 
Starmer. So, he is calling for more funding for council housing and more 
re-nationalisation (indeed Starmer himself is changing direction over 
this, now calling for nationalisation of the steel industry).

Sections of the ruling class are concerned that Starmer cannot retain 
control over his MPs and continue its assaults on the working class. 
Therefore, Burnham is seen as a handy alternative, due to his supposed 
popularity, and better able to implement harsh measures. Burnham has 
said that he supports fiscal rules and so may well curry favour with 
sections of the boss class. He hopes to garner the racist vote by his 
support for anti-migrant action pushed by Home Secretary Shabana 
Mahmood. He has said that the government should spend more on defence, 
rather than health, education and infrastructure.

The past few decades of austerity and rising cost of living have dealt 
severe blows to the old establishment parties of Labour and 
Conservatives. Unfortunately, the vacuum that is opening does not 
benefit truly radical ideas, but offers new opportunities for the 
populist far right. Bigotry and racism are now fully out in the open. As 
for the left, whether they be the old Stalinist formations or the 
Trotskyist groups, they have been unable to develop any significant 
threat, tied as they are by an umbilical cord to Labourism. The majority 
of British anarchism, now much reduced, is also similarly unable to 
offer a challenge.

A social alternative is in dire need of being created. This has to mean 
painstaking work around the cost-of-living crisis, the rising cost of 
energy and food, housing, and transport. This crisis has been aggravated 
by the Trump regime's war against Iran, and so a clear antimilitarist 
message has to be linked to any such fight against this crisis. Whether 
this alternative can be built remains to be seen. If not, the far right 
will profit.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2026/06/03/the-may-elections-and-after-the-labour-leadership-contest/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en