Starmer is destroying his own party.
The meteoric blunder of suspending Corbyn has plunged Labour into ongoing civil war, kept antisemitism in the headlines in the worst possible way, and factionalised tackling racism.
If it wasn’t clear enough what a blunder Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension was at the time, it is now he’s being reinstated. Keir Starmer has made clear he isn’t pleased with the decision, and the climb down is reluctant.
The left now knows not to trust Starmer, and knows it has to fight to get its priorities considered; Starmer has shown himself willing to throw socialists under the bus in order to placate the media. At the same time, now Corbyn is back, he’s alienated the hard right of the party, meaning they are up in arms and manoeuvring. The whole thing is ridiculous, and Starmer is now disliked by all but the soft left Milibandism-Kinnockism faction, who could live with Corbyn, and can live with Starmer.
Starmer has damaged his leadership and now the public standing of the party. Various Jewish groups are very publicly unhappy about the Corbyn reinstatement; something made worse by suspension in the first place. Antisemitism and Corbyn are back in the headlines, which will have a toxic effect on public standing of the party. The rightwing press are having a frenzy and baying for blood.
As someone who supported Corbyn’s leadership, and stands by transformative socialist policies, I have this to say: We are here to stay, we aren’t going anywhere. Starmer can either waste time and political capital fighting us, and loose with a divided party, or turn his “forensic” manoeuvring onto the government and tackle them. The very government that is festering with islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and hard right culture wars.
This is a once in a generation chance for Labour to lead, and we’re scoring own goals. We actually should be well ahead of the govt, and we’re breaking even in the polls. Divided parties don’t win; and Corbyn comes with the left.
You want the left on board? Don’t vilify us, don’t feed the frenzy of smears by doing what the press wants (it’ll only ask for more and more), actually implement the recommendations of the EHRC report and make it about Jewish members, NOT Corbyn, draw the line on this, and allow us to exist in the party, leave Corbyn be, give us a seat at the table. End of.
That’s all we want. treat us as governing partners with ideas and tactics you can't win without in the 2020s, don't treat us as enemies or cranks.