Is Labour Preparing Brits For A Tax Shock This Autumn?

Posted on 06/08/2025 by Boris Clair

Are our taxes about to go up?

That’s a question Brits will be hearing again and again ahead of Labour’s autumn Budget, where the government sets out its spending and tax plans for the year ahead.

Very rarely do ministers admit in any significant detail exactly what they have planned for the fiscal event – but early signs suggest that a tax hike just might be looming.

The occupants of 10 and 11 Downing Street are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the country’s finances right now.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves promised not to increase taxes on “working people” in the run-up to the general election last year.

While the exact definition of that phrase split public opinion, Labour said it means not raising income tax, employee national insurance or VAT.

Of course, that wording came back to haunt the government at last year’s Budget when they revealed they were hiking employers’ national insurance contributions – and critics swiftly pointed out that employers are “working people”, too.

Then the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) think tank today predicted that Reeves will need to raise taxes to close a government spending gap on course to reach more than £40 billion.

This is due to unexpectedly sluggish economic growth – GDP grew by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2025 but contracted by 0.1% in May – and higher-than-expected inflation – at 3.6% in June.

To make matters worse, when Labour made its 2024 tax promises, it also pledged to oversee a period of significant economic growth which… has not really happened.

So perhaps it is no surprise the NIESR claimed Reeves is facing “an impossible trilemma” – sticking to her fiscal rules while fulfilling her spending commitments and upholding her manifesto pledge not to raise taxes for working people.

Tellingly, the prime minister refused to reiterate his commitment not to increase “working people” taxes on Wednesday.

He told reporters he did “not recognise” the NIESR’s figures, adding: “But the Budget won’t be until later in the year – that’s when we’ll have the forecast and set out our plans.”

He also steered the conversation away from taxes, telling reporters: “What’s really important is that I’m very clear about our focus, which will be on living standards and making sure that people feel better-off, partly because more money is coming into their pocket in the first place through better wages, and partly because we’re bearing down on costs like mortgages and other costs to everyday families.”

Tory donor and former deputy chair of the party, Lord Ashcroft, took that to mean there will be “another U-turn” on Labour’s promises coming soon.

But, increasing taxes on “working people” is not the only option for the government.

Those on the Labour left are calling for a wealth tax, although cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds called the idea “daft” just last month.

Meanwhile, professor Stephen Millard, the NIESR’s deputy director for macroeconomics, told the BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that Reeves could look at reforming the council tax system.

“Houses have not been revalued since 1991. The system is ripe for a complete reform,” he said. “The question there is whether reforming the council tax system, getting it right, would necessarily raise any additional money.

“An alternative is to replace the whole thing with a land value tax, which is much fairer and which potentially could actually raise a significant amount of money.”

But just what will Labour choose to do to fix our unsteady finances? Right now, it seems like it is anybody’s guess – including Labour’s.

Blow To Labour As Reform Voters Prefer Jeremy Corbyn To Keir Starmer On Almost Every Metric

Posted on 30/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Reform UK voters generally prefer Jeremy Corbyn to Keir Starmer, a surprising new poll has found.

As first reported by Novara Media, a survey of 2,000 UK adults – conducted by Merlin Strategy over the weekend – showed Reform voters believe the former Labour leader has better qualities than the current prime minister.

The poll showed 65% of respondents think Corbyn was more authentic, 67% said he was for working people, 57% think he was hardworking, 64% believe he’s honest and 54% say he’s intelligent.

A further 70% said they believe Corbyn makes radical decisions, 64% say he is principled, 69% say he represents change, 62% say he’s strong and 59% say he’s trustworthy.

And, crucially, 61% said they believe the Islington North MP understands “people like me”.

Starmer won on only one metric – he’s seen as better on the world stage than Corbyn.

However, the poll did not show whether or not this would push Farage supporters to actually vote for Corbyn’s new party.

Still, the research will be a real blow to the Labour government, considering it has moved away from hard-left policies touted by figures like Corbyn, in favour of winning back Reform voters.

The right-wing populist party has soared in popularity over the last year and now consistently leads in opinion polls by a healthy margin – despite having just four MPs.

So the government has been trying to win back that support.

Labour’s political director Claire Reynolds even told the party’s MPs in May that Reform UK voters are “our people”, but they’re just “pissed off” with the government right now.

It’s well-known that Starmer’s increasingly hardline anti-immigration policies have failed to cut through to Farage’s growing body of supporters – as Reform UK currently have a seven-point lead on Labour.

However, it will rub salt in the wound to know that Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor who was expelled from the party over a row related to antisemitism, is more respected than the prime minister.

Starmer has tried to present it as a major strength that he moved Labour away from Corbyn’s policies after the party’s disastrous performance in the 2019 general election.

But, the Islington North MP is now setting up his own left-wing party – which is yet to be named – and already has 500,000 sign-ups expressing interest.

Zarah Sultana, a suspended Labour MP who quit the party to join Corbyn’s new group, told Novara Media that Starmer’s “spent years chasing Reform voters, echoing their rhetoric, even mimicking Enoch Powell. And for what? They still prefer Jeremy Corbyn.”

Corbyn himself told the outlet: “The Labour government is here to appease Reform. We are here to defeat Reform.”

How Starmer Told His Cabinet To Stop Beating Themselves Up – Then Cracked The Whip On Rebel MPs

Posted on 18/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Keir Starmer’s speechwriters experienced mixed emotions at last week’s Cabinet away day.

They had prepared a carefully-crafted message for the prime minister to deliver to his senior ministers as he welcomed them to Chequers.

But the PM surprised – and impressed – them by not using the words they had prepared for him, choosing instead to make a “freeforming”, 20-minute speech setting out his thoughts on Labour’s first year in power and where he believes his government needs to go next.

“It was very good,” said one of those present. “He spoke from the heart about whose side we’re on. You could feel in the room that it went down well.”

Lucy Powell, leader of the House of Commons, told Starmer: “Your speechwriters are great, but it’s better when you speak from the heart.”

The PM told the assembled gathering that while Labour had undoubtedly made mistakes since last year’s landslide election win, they had also done things like introducing free school meals, breakfast clubs and 4.5 million NHS appointments.

“He said lots of people in Westminster won’t appreciate how those policies make a massive difference to ordinary people across the country,” said one eyewitness.

“After a year in government, he said he realised that the Tories get 96% of things wrong and focus on the 4% of things they get right, whereas Labour gets 96% of things right but agonise over the 4% we get wrong.

“We have a tendency to beat ourselves up about the things we get wrong, but he said we need to focus on the things we do that are improving the lives of the people who put us here.”

Starmer spoke about his own upbringing, about his brother who died on Boxing Day last year and his sister who is a carer.

“It makes me feel incredibly privileged to do this job, but I never lose sight of the fact that we are here to make life better for ordinary people,” the PM said.

The overall message was that while the first year in office had been necessarily tough, Labour is now entering the next phase of its time in government.

“We’ve done a lot and we need to shout about that more, but there’s lots more to do before the next election,” said one No.10 source.

“It was about building towards the message that we’ll have at party conference in September. We were elected on a promise of change, we did the tough stuff in the first year and now is the time to set out the positive change people are going to feel over the next four years.”

Although Downing Street officials deny the two things were linked, removing the whip from four Labour MPs on Wednesday afternoon also felt like an attempt by Starmer to draw a line under his first year in power and look to the future.

Many Labour MPs were stunned by the swift brutality of it, but others were delighted to see perennial rebels like Brian Leishman and Neil Duncan-Jordan made an example of.

“There are lots of loyal MPs who were absolutely spitting feathers at the behaviour of some of the members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) , so there was quite a lot of pressure from them for us to do something,” said one insider.

Others, however, were baffled by the move, with one Labour source bemoaning the “randomness, the odd timing and the lack of any accompanying strategy” behind the decision.

Some point the finger at Claire Reynolds, Downing Street’s political director, who encouraged the government whips to threaten rebel MPs with suspension if they voted against the welfare cuts bill last week.

Despite Starmer gutting the legislation of many of its key measures in order to placate the rebels, 47 of them still trooped through the No lobbies.

One No.10 insider said of the disciplinary action: “We couldn’t do it during the welfare stuff, we had to wait for the dust to settle on that.

“But if you are actively organising against the government then there has to be consequences.”

But a Labour source said: “Presumably they internally have been saying ‘we need to take this action, otherwise we look ridiculous at not being able to follow through on the threats we made before the vote’.

“So a bad strategy for persuading the PLP ends up with a bad strategy for disciplining the PLP.

“If Claire Reynolds is making threats to people and demanding they be sacked to fulfil her threats, I’m not sure any of that is being instigated by [No.10 chief of staff] Morgan McSweeney, Keir or [chief whip] Alan Campbell, even if they’re going along with it.”

An already-tumultuous week then saw Diane Abbott lose the Labour whip for a second time after she doubled down on the comments about anti-semitism which led to her original suspension from the party.

It was a timely reminder for Starmer that for all his talk about a brighter future, the present has the unfortunate habit of delivering a sharp dose of political reality.

As MPs prepare to leave Westminster for the summer next week, the prime minister will hope that his second year in power is better than his first.

But all the evidence of the past 12 month suggests he and his cabinet should buckle up for another bumpy ride.

Diane Abbott Suspended By Labour For A Second Time Over Anti-Semitism Comments

Posted on 17/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Diane Abbott has been suspended by Labour for a second time amid fresh allegations of anti-semitism.

The veteran MP appeared to double down on previous comments she made about Jewish, Irish and Traveller people not experiencing the same type of racism as black people, which saw her lose the party whip two years ago.

In an interview with the Radio 4′s Reflections programme, Abbott said she did not look back on that incident with regret.

She said: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism. I don’t know why people would say that.”

In a statement, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

It means Abbott will not have the Labour whip and will have to sit as an independent MP.

The initial row erupted over a letter Abbott sent to The Observer in 2023, in which she said: “They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.

“It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.

“But they are not all their lives subject to racism. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.

“In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.”

She later claimed the letter had been sent to the newspaper in error and apologised “unreservedly” for any “anguish” they had caused.

The former shadow home secretary was eventually given back the Labour whip before last year’s general election – but has been a regular critic of Keir Starmer’s leadership.

Abbott, who is the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, was criticised by the Jewish Labour Movement.

In a post on X, they said: “Anti-semitism is anti-Jewish racism. It targets Jews regardless of how they look, and many of our community are visibly Jewish and suffer racism for it.

“We are disappointed that Diane Abbott MP has doubled down on comments she previously appeared to apologise for, and are pleased to hear that Labour are looking into them.”

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We are disappointed that Diane Abbott MP has doubled down on comments she previously appeared to apologise for, and are pleased to hear that Labour are looking into them.

2/2

— Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) July 17, 2025

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We are disappointed that Diane Abbott MP has doubled down on comments she previously appeared to apologise for, and are pleased to hear that Labour are looking into them.

2/2

— Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) July 17, 2025

The row comes just a day after four Labour MPs lost the whip for persistent breaches of party discipline.

Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell were all suspended by government chief whip Alan Campbell.

All four voted against the government’s flagship welfare bill last week, but it is understood they have been disciplined for “actively organising against the government” over several months.

Seven Labour MPs also lost the whip last July after voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, although four of them later had it restored.

MPs Have Passed Labour’s Welfare Bill – But There Is Trouble Ahead For Keir Starmer

Posted on 09/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Keir Starmer spent this afternoon in his happy place, rubbing shoulders with Emmanuel Macron and playing the global statesman.

The pair held talks in 10 Downing Street as the French president’s three-day state visit to the UK continued.

Among the topics discussed were how both governments can work together to end the small boats crisis, support Ukraine and increase bilateral trade and investment.

Starmer positively beamed as he stood on the steps of No.10 alongside Macron and the pair’s wives.

However, the PM was brought back to earth with a thump later in the day.

Although MPs comfortably passed the government’s Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill by 336 votes to 242, dozens of Labour backbenchers thumbed their nose at the prime minister.

Some 47 voted against the legislation, with a further 14 abstaining.

That is despite Starmer making a series of concessions which mean the bill itself bears little resemblance to what it did originally.

Plans to make it harder to claim Personal Independence Payments (PIP) have been kicked into the long grass, a move which removed almost all of the £5 billion of savings the bill was meant to deliver.

Nevertheless, Labour rebels remain unhappy at cuts to the health element of universal credit – and were willing to defy their leader and the party whips in order to register their unhappiness.

Keir Starmer and wife Victoria welcome French president Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte to 10 Downing Street.

And while Starmer’s 165-seat Commons majority meant he ultimately prevailed on this occasion, that may not always be the case.

The rebels have set their sights on the removal of the two-child benefit cap, while government plans to slash the amount of money spent on helping children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) will also be hugely controversial.

A No.10 insider admitted to HuffPost UK that “the handling of the welfare stuff was bad”, but insisted lessons would be learned for future votes.

But he added: “In reality, we don’t have a majority of 165. We’re never going to win over the socialist campaign group who just don’t like Keir, and those sitting on very small majorities are difficult to whip as well.

“But there will be others among the welfare rebels who we can get back on board with a decent handling plan.”

After just a year as PM, Keir Starmer already finds himself at odds with a significant chunk of his own MPs.

The bad news for him is that things are unlikely to get any easier from now on.

Another Blow For Starmer As Two-Thirds Of Brits Say PM No Longer Respects Them, Poll Finds

Posted on 08/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Two-thirds of Brits believe Keir Starmer does not respect people like them, according to a new poll.

Researchers at More in Common and UCL Policy Lab found 63% of the 7,000 people polled in June say the prime minister does not respect them now, compared to 32% a year ago.

Only a quarter (24%) of respondents said they still believe he does respect them.

Meanwhile, 65% of voters say the Labour Party as a whole lacks respect for them – double the amount who said that in 2024.

The results are yet another blow to the prime minister, who has just marked a year in office, but has very little to celebrate.

Last week, he was forced to water down his welfare reforms to prevent his own backbenchers from voting them down, although 48 Labour MPs still rebelled.

The decision also blew a £5 billion hole in chancellor Rachel Reeves’ autumn Budget, leaving more tax rises all-but inevitable.

So it’s no surprise that Brits told More in Common and UCL Policy Lab they would give the party an E on their report card after a year in office.

Most voters said nothing had changed in the year since the last Tory government was kicked out of office.

Only three in five Labour voters from last year would still support the party now, the researchers found.

Former Labour supporters are now heading to other parties – 11% to Reform, 8% to the Lib Dems, 4% to the Greens and 4% to the Conservatives.

More than a third of those disillusioned voters (36%) said they were moving away from Labour due to broken promises and U-turns.

A further 31% blamed the government’s inability to reduce the cost of living, and 27% cited the changes to the winter fuel allowance.

Other top reasons included a lack of control over immigration, improving the NHS and changes to the benefit system.

But, despite believing he does not respect them, only 13% said they would not vote for Labour because they don’t like Starmer, the same proportion who said the party is now too right-wing.

Meanwhile, the poll found Reform UK’s Nigel Farage is now seen as the most respectful political leader.

A third (33%) said the MP for Clacton respects people like them, compared to 24% who felt the same about either Starmer or Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

Half (50%) of Brits said Farage felt the opposite – but that’s still significantly lower than those who feel the same about Starmer (63%) or Badenoch (56%).

Panel Of 2024 Labour Voters Name The 1 Turning Point They Began To Like Farage

Posted on 06/07/2025 by Boris Clair

A panel of 2024 Labour voters said they started to like Reform UK after watching its leader Nigel Farage on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.

Back in late 2023 before he was elected to parliament, Farage caused a huge stir by appearing in the hit reality TV show.

Even the programme’s hosts Ant and Dec urged producers to take a break from having politicians as contestants.

But, Farage still won over voters and ended up in third place.

More than 18 months later, a panel of voters who backed Labour last July told pollsters that his appearance on the show marked the moment they started warming up to the MP for Clacton.

In footage aired by the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, one voter told pollsters More in Common: “I really like Reform.

“I didn’t [like him], but it was I’m A Celeb… which turned my head for Nigel.

“I really saw a different side to him and I think he’s very misunderstood.”

“He’s more relatable to people, to the average person,” another woman said. “Whereas some politicians at the present seem far removed, they’re so in another world, because they are public school educated, they can’t relate to the average person.”

However, a different person did jump in at this point, saying: “Nigel Farage was publicly educated, while Keir Starmer is working class but he does present that.

“So Nigel Farage puts on this image of being one of the people, but actually he went to private school.”

Even so, some voters suggested they would fire Starmer for his “disappointing” performance over the last year unless he starts to “try harder”.

Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid also told the BBC that this conversation demonstrated how voters “need to feel a material difference in their lives”.

She noted that they are still struggling with food inflation and cost of living, so the “government are getting this wrong”.

“Perhaps Sir Keir Starmer needs to go on I’m A Celebrity… or Strictly, in order for voters to know who he is,” Reid suggested. “The words that kept coming out of their mouths were: I don’t know who he is.”

The focus group’s findings were published to mark the anniversary of Labour’s landslide victory in the general election as political pundits look at how Starmer has fallen down in the polls ever since.

Sky News had its own devastating way of portraying Labour’s first year in office with some brutal word clouds, again from More in Common.

The pollsters asked the public: “In a word or two, what would you say has been Labour’s biggest achievement in government?”

The largest word by a healthy margin was “nothing”, although – in much smaller fonts – NHS, welfare, winter, election and Ukraine were all visible too.

A More in Common word cloud shown on Sky News

‘It’s A Shitshow’: After A Year Of Mistakes And U-Turns, Can Keir Starmer Turn It Around?

Posted on 04/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Sometimes a moment can capture the political mood better than any speech or parliamentary vote.

Leaving 10 Downing Street en route to his ministerial car before prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, a walk of only a few steps which he has made hundreds of times in the past year, Keir Starmer stumbled.

As his right leg began to give way, the prime minister instinctively reached out to grab the nearest railing to steady himself.

In the grand scheme of things it was a minor mishap. No harm done, let’s just move on.

But for a PM under pressure and whose very political existence is now the subject of open speculation at Westminster, it wasn’t a great look.

If he can’t even leave the house without nearly falling flat on his face, you could hear his critics thinking, how on earth can he run the country?

Underlining how difficult things are right now for Starmer, worse was to follow less than an hour later, as he ploughed his way through PMQs seemingly unaware that his chancellor was in tears beside him.

We may never know the real reason for Rachel Reeves’ distress, but the message it seemed to convey to the country was unmistakeable: just a year on from Labour’s landslide election victory, this is a government which already seems to be emotionally and politically spent.

“They haven’t got a narrative and the whole thing’s a mess.”

The previous evening, the PM had been forced to make yet another U-turn in order to ensure the government’s flagship Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill was passed at second reading.

The fact that it no longer contains anything at all on personal independence payments demonstrates how much Starmer had to give away to win the support of enough of his rebellious MPs.

The climbdown meant that the £5 billion of savings the welfare reforms were supposed to deliver have now disappeared, leaving the chancellor to plan yet more tax rises to fill the gap.

As a backdrop to Starmer’s first anniversary in the job, it was far from ideal.

“They’ve got a huge majority, but they haven’t got a narrative and the whole thing’s a mess,” said one gloomy Labour veteran.

“I was talking to a senior businessman who said on the day-to-day stuff, the government is actually getting a lot of things right. But fundamentally it’s a shitshow.

“This weekend we should be celebrating the first anniversary of a famous victory, which was an outstanding achievement, but instead we’ve gone straight to the massive hangover.”

Starmer felt compelled to warn his cabinet this week about briefing against Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff who has become a lightning rod for criticism of the No.10 operation.

Reeves’s strict adherence to her fiscal rules, which are aimed at keeping a tight rein on government spending, has also been blamed for the government’s woes.

Labour MPs feel worn down by having to defend unpopular government decisions like removing winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners, only for the PM to eventually U-turn on them when the political heat gets too much.

One senior Labour figure told HuffPost UK that Starmer has it in his gift to lift the gloom, but he doesn’t have any time to waste.

“They’ve got three years to recover,” he said. “It’s perfectly doable, but they need to be getting back on track very quickly. Luckily, the Tories are still all over the place. Reform are obviously a problem, but it is a recoverable situation.

“Basically, Keir needs to get a grip. He has to shake things up and some people’s egos will get bruised in the process, but in the end we’ve got to move on.

“Does he want to be remembered as the man who re-established the party and set us on a forward path or does he want to be remembered as the man who blew it?”

“Keir needs to get a grip. He has to shake things up.”

One Labour MP said the government needs to get on and deliver the change that the country voted for a year ago.

“There has to be an improvement in living standards,” he said. “If we don’t make people feel better off, then we will suffer at the next election.”

The MP warned that Nigel Farage will be the main beneficiary if Starmer doesn’t get his and the government’s act together soon.

He said: “Nobody said it was going to be easy. There’s no political patience out there. People feel worn down and want to see improvements tomorrow, and if they don’t then they’ll vote for Reform.”

There is anger inside No.10 towards the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), who many believe are either unable or unwilling to accept the parlous state of the public finances means tough decisions need to be made.

In the wake of the welfare reform fiasco, one MP was even overheard saying: “I don’t understand why this means tax rises when it’s only a few billion pounds.”

Flushed with the success of forcing the PM to U-turn on welfare cuts, some rebels made it clear they will now try to force him to scrap the two-child benefit cap – a move that would come with a £3.5bn price tag.

That prompted one No.10 insider to observe: “They are aware they’ve just spent that money, right?”

A cabinet minister told HuffPost UK it was time for some Labour backbenchers to come into the real world.

“You can’t have a situation where MPs club together and force a decision that costs £5bn and then dump all the consequences on the chancellor,” he said.

“If these things are collectively decided, they need to be collectively owned. The PLP can’t think this is a free lunch, that we’ll move on next to something like the two-child benefit cap and say the chancellor will have to deal with that. It’s been very unfair to load all that on her.

“Labour MPs think somehow somebody else will deal with it, that you can tax more or borrow more and it’ll all be fine. But when you tax private schools, farmers, businesses, there’s always a big pushback. There isn’t a free little lever that you can just pull.”

rime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves

French president Emmanuel Macron is in London next week to address parliament and hold talks with Starmer on how France can work with the UK to stop asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats.

Bringing down immigration was a key Labour pledge in the election, and yet the number of asylum seekers making the perilous journey is at a record high.

Party strategists believe fulfilling that promise is essential if the government is to show voters that it is delivering.

But Chris Hopkins, political research director at pollsters Savanta, said it may already be too late for Starmer.

“I’m not sure he can turn things around,” he said. “It’s too early to completely write them off – we’ve seen far stranger things than a Labour comeback – but public opinion is far easier to lose than win back and the prospects for this government don’t look good.

“They lack the policy agenda to capture voters’ imagination, they lack the fiscal headroom to bring about tangible changes to people’s lives, and they’re not proving themselves to be united, competent or strong either.

“It’s no surprise at this stage that so many 2024 Labour voters have buyer’s remorse, and when the Tories and Labour fail, the untested alternatives suddenly look significantly less risky for an increasingly promiscuous electorate.

“Labour’s electoral coalition was always going to be difficult to hold together, but I think the speed and scale of the collapse from such a strong position is a surprise, and exactly what the country didn’t need from its next government.”

Starmer will spend his anniversary weekend away from Downing Street, and his allies insist he will not be brooding on the turmoil of recent days.

“He’s not someone that sits and dwells on things,” said on senior government official. “There are obviously lessons to be learned, but he’s focused on what we can do to fix things rather than spend all his time chewing over the past week.”

Labour’s first 12 months in office have been marked by a series of self-inflicted errors, gaffes, controversies and climbdowns.

The next election may not be until 2029, but Starmer and those around him know that he cannot afford for the next year to be as bad as the last one.

Jeremy Corbyn To Set Up New Left-Wing Party With Former Labour MP

Posted on 03/07/2025 by Boris Clair

Jeremy Corbyn is to set up a new left-wing party alongside a former Labour MP.

Zarah Sultana, who lost the Labour whip a year ago and currently sits in the Commons as an independent, announced the move in a statement posted on X.

The Coventry South MP said other independent MPs would also be joining the new party.

She said: “Today, after 14 years, I am resigning from the Labour Party.

“Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.

“Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper. Just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population. Poverty is growing, inequality is obscene and the two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises.”

Sultana, who was first elected as a Labour MP in 2019, had the Labour whip removed last July after she voted against the government to back the lifting of the two-child benefit cap.

She said Labour had “completely failed to improve people’s lives”, which had led to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK leading in the polls.

She added: “We are not going to take this any more. We’re not an island of strangers, we’re an island that’s suffering. We need homes and lives we can actually afford, not rip-off bills we pay every month to a tiny elite bathing in cash. We need our money spent on public services, not forever wars.

“In 2029 the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism. Billionaires already have three parties fighting for them. It’s time the rest of us had one. Join us. The time is now.”

<div class="js-react-hydrator" data-component-name="Twitter" data-component-id="9419" data-component-props="{"itemType":"rich","index":13,"contentIndexByType":1,"contentListType":"embed","code":"

Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.

Join us. The time is now.

Sign up here to stay updated: https://t.co/MAwVBrHOzH pic.twitter.com/z91p0CkXW0

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 3, 2025

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Sign up here to stay updated: https://t.co/MAwVBrHOzH pic.twitter.com/z91p0CkXW0— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 3, 2025\n\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":1080,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu9JpsVW4AAQqgT.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":1080,"title":"Zarah Sultana MP on Twitter / 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