Prime minister Keir Starmer delivered what was described as a make-or-break speech yesterday morning in an increasingly desperate attempt to cling on to power following Labour’s catastrophic losses in local elections last week.
Clearly, the speech was aimed solely at Labour MPs who are demanding Starmer’s removal as prime minister and to intimidate those rivals already ‘on manoeuvres’ to replace him.
Starmer started by saying last week’s election results were ‘tough, very tough’ and that he takes full responsibility for them.
But for the next half hour he avoided taking any responsibility, just warning that the UK is facing ‘dangerous times’ and ‘very dangerous opponents’ and warning: ‘If we don’t get this right, our country will go down a very dark path.’
Starmer was painting a picture of Britain surrounded by dangerous opponents that only he, Sir Keir Starmer, could defeat, presumably by a massive increase in defence spending paid for out of brutal cuts to the welfare system and NHS.
Starmer didn’t elaborate on this, it was just a warning shot to Labour MPs that any move to remove him would cause the entire country to collapse into chaos.
This was the theme that ran throughout his speech – only Starmer can save the Labour government and save bankrupt British capitalism.
He accepted that Labour had ‘made mistakes’ but insisted that he had been able to ‘stabilise the economy’ while acknowledging that ‘incremental change won’t cut it’ and that for British people ‘change cannot come quickly enough’.
This was the only true word Starmer spoke – the British working class are demanding real change immediately and will not be pacified by the vacant empty promises of a Labour government.
This is a government that has reneged on all its election pledges in order to ‘stabilise the economy’ by seeking to cut pensioners’ fuel allowance and retain the hated Tory two-child benefit cap.
The only firm policy that Starmer could offer was the re- nationalisation of the remains of the British steel industry.
The British steel industry, nationalised in 1947, was broken up and privatised by the Tory government in 1988 and subsequently sold off to hedge funds and overseas owners who reaped billions in profit before declaring it bankrupt and threatening complete closure.
Starmer is now claiming that the forced re-nationalisation represents a real triumph and demonstrates his commitment to the working class.
Even this has the caveat that the full takeover is subject to a public interest test – in other words, whether it’s deemed ‘affordable’ by chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Treasury.
The immediate effect of the speech was to convince Labour MP Catherine West, who had threatened to trigger an immediate leadership election, to back down.
In a statement issued after Starmer’s speech, West said it was ‘too little too late’ and called for him to set a leadership election timetable.
Starmer may be congratulating himself for having survived another day but the working class have demonstrated that they have turned their backs on this hated Labour government that serves only the interests of a bankrupt British capitalist system.
The issue for workers and youth is not just the flimsy pledge to re-nationalise British Steel but the nationalisation of all the oil and energy companies who are making vast profits while average households face increasing bills and a cost-of-living crisis that is forcing millions into abject poverty.
With British capitalism diving into recession, the powerful working class are not prepared to tolerate a Labour government that is determined to sacrifice their lives in order to keep the bosses and bankers in profit.
The time has come for the working class to force their trade unions to take action by demanding an emergency conference of the TUC to call a general strike to bring down the Labour government and replace it with a workers government.
A workers government will nationalise the major industries and banks, placing them under the management of the working class and building a socialist planned economy.
Only the WRP and Young Socialists fight for this policy – join today to build up the leadership required for the victory of the British Socialist Revolution.