Report compiled after talks with thousand of working-class voters will be launched in Facebook/Zoom call tonight
Three leading figures of the working-class left will publicly demand an apology tonight from Labour leader Keir Starmer to the public – regardless how they voted on Brexit – for the conduct of the Labour right and soft left that cost Labour last year’s general election.
In a report compiled after meetings over a ten-month period with voters in thirty towns Ian Lavery, Laura Smith and Jon Trickett call no fewer than three times for Starmer to apologise – and say that he owe that apology to leavers and remainers alike, because the push for a second Brexit referendum showed contempt to leave voters and misled remainers when a new referendum was never realistic.
The trio’s meetings with thousands of working class voters have shown that leave voters felt Labour had turned its back on them in a show of contempt for their votes – and as a result they punished Labour by casting those votes elsewhere in the general election, as Lavery told the BBC this morning:
There is no question that this was the key factor in losing Labour more than fifty working-class, leave voting seats.
Remainers, in turn, were misled by the promise of a new referendum that was never going to happen – as the working-class left constantly warned. By pushing incessantly for one, the Labour right and soft left guaranteed the hardest of Tory Brexits to the detriment of the whole country.
Keir Starmer was one of the leading figures in that push for a new referendum, even ignoring party policy and the Labour leadership as far back as his 2018 conference speech to put a ‘remain’ option in a new referendum on the table:
Lavery is absolutely right that Starmer is the right person to make that apology.
The full No Holding Back report and its conclusions will be launched this evening with a Zoom rally streamed live to the group’s Facebook page and the SKWAWKBOX Facebook page, starting at 7.30pm.
With the demand for a ‘full-throated’ apology by a Labour leadership eager to forget what so-called ‘centrists’ inflicted on the country last year, it promises to be an explosive event.
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It’s remainers who were most deeply mistreated. We (leavers) knew what was happening and were castigated on social media for saying so. It was this that caused me to leave the Labour party. Remainers need to accept they were given false hope by a centrist liberal/right wing majority in the party who thought nothing of cheating them out of getting a Labour government by pretending they had a chance of ref2.
Starmer deliberately pushed REMAIN fever and “People’s” Vote. His deceitful cabal knew that Jeremy had always been EU sceptic. The plan was to force Jeremy into an uncomfortable position. PLUS, lose the previously staunch Labour voters.
Starmer preferred a Jeremy led Labour Party defeat to Johnson and Cummings rather than have Jeremy as PM proving that our policies are what this country and the world needs.
As soon as Starmer deceived his way to grab the leadership, he said the Brexit debate is finished🔴 Starmer DUMPED his Remain stance🔴 Starmer infests Labour and infests the leadership🔴
signpost and lundiel are absolutely correct. As a lifelong Bennite who voted against the common market in the 1975 referendum too, anyone with an ounce of sense could have seen this coming a mile off. The best you can possibly say of Starmer is that he is a political cretin who should not be anywhere near the leadership of the Labour Party: more likely he is a scheming bastard who knew very well what he was doing. The biggest problem is the hordes of sheeple who fell for the PV gimmick and then voted Starmer in, all the time thinking they were somehow “left wing.”
The doyen of soft-boiled, never-elected Blairites, Andrew Adonis, was quick onto twitter this morning with a 2 word dismissal of the report: “Complete Rubbish.” If you want to see complete rubbish just look in the mirror, Lord Adonis.
Chaucer presciently described Sir Steer Calmer back in the 14th century in his “The Knight’s Tale.”
“The smyler with the knyf undre the cloke…”
An apology is not enough, walking the plank into a shark-infested sewer would be more in order.
Anyone can check my earliest posts where these OBVIOUS “findings” were rubbished by a few. Take note who the rubbish ers were. People confused their feelings about Remain or Leave with what exists now and what was a possibility in a future. They took a long funning Tory in-house bust up and made it our noose. We could have rushed the Tories for at least two generations. But out of touch, identity obsessed, virtue signallers so busy signalling and searching frantically for yet more nano particles to “champion”, missed the obvious. That the push for remain was 1️⃣ To make Jeremy uncomfortable and 2️⃣ Make us lose our core vote then 3️⃣ Claim it was the policies and Jeremy. 4️⃣ The Right wing then did not stop to wait and see. They were ALL over the MSM radio from the very minute they sensed the defeat for which they WORKED, blaming Jeremy and “Far Left”. Not once did the mention their REMAIN temporary zealotry.
labrebisgalloise, thank you. Your quote is spot on – “The smyler with the knyf undre the cloke…”
It illustrates that the problems Jeremy faced are not in the slightest bit new. Facts and reality and HISTORY and the experiences of others even far away… we must learn from all. I detect a determination not to learn as if our good intentions butters parsnips. Good intentions are WORTHLESS if not brought to life. No one drowning feels that people sending good wishes instead of using the available lifeboat, are helping them.
Pretending that Brexit voters were heroic, insightful and sincere leftists – and that remainers were all evil, deluded rightists – and that those heroic lefties only voted Tory as an act of tactical genius to save Brexit – is a blatant and shameful rewriting of history intended to excuse and win back those New Tories in the towns that switched uniforms and went over to the enemy.
Ukip and Farage were never ‘for the people’ and neither are the Tories.
I can excuse the stupidity but I don’t forgive turncoats, racists and traitors so easily.
Ukip was ALWAYS a racist enterprise – don’t even fucking try to deny it.
Skwawky, I think you’re going to need a ‘hate’ button.
That is not what is being argued and you bloody well know it McNiven.
It’s ALWAYS been the brexiteer argument.
You have overlooked that there was such a thing as the LEXIT position which most of us were pushing from the left, but people like you were clearly not listening, and still now ignoring. The problem we have in this country is people take a particular view based on gut reaction rather than facts, then can’t accept they were wrong.
The EU has long since been a Neo-Liberal project just like here for all the same reasons, but people accepted the Libdem view of Europe for a myriad of reasons none of which were borne out by facts. Isn’t it time to sit down and start thinking instead of believing what you want to believe.
Believing that a small, ex-neoliberal, newly-socialist state surrounded by neoliberal states – while it itself is still infested with the now insanely vindictive grandfathers and inventors of neoliberalism – – – to believe that such a state can still get fair trade deals with those neoliberal states – takes delusion on a grand, not to say FUCKING COSMIC scale.
Think of Cuba – minus the support of the USSR – opposed by the US – AND THE FUCKING EU combined.
Starmer is in need of a policy reset, leftists leave now don’t bother with this cancerous corpse
Guess who are the next three MPs to suddenly be found to be anti-semitic!
This is a pointless side-show about three MP’s attempting to triangulate.
In those so called Labour safe seats which have been referred to as the ‘red wall’, two issues came together to defeat Labour, the undermining of Jeremy Corbyn by the Israeli Lobby and immigration. UKIP and Farage implanted in many voter’s minds, particularly in the less well off areas, that it was immigration encouraged by EU membership which was responsible for many of their ills. To their shame, some Labour MP’s, because of their outdated dislike of the EU, deliberately failed to dispel this view implanted by Farage.
The furore of all of the antiSemitism charges against Corbyn cast further doubts in the minds of the electorate, particularly the attacks upon Corbyn by some of his own MP’s, until eventually voters thought why should we vote for a Labour Party in chaos?
To blame the entirely democratic notion of a confirmatory vote for Labour’s defeat is despicable and yet another attempt by some to disguise their own failures. To say that democracy can undermine democracy is ridiculous. The truth is that Lexiters did not want to give the electorate the opportunity to change their minds, for fear of losing their precious Brexit – which is now turning into a disaster.
During the election, I heard people interviewed on television state, they felt betrayed by Labour who ignored their vote in the referendum, meanwhile right wing Labour and the Libdems were all shouting that they had the majority of support after the referendum.
The actual votes in the north proved that was a myth, and people said unequivocally they were voting out regardless of the impact remainers claimed.
Why quote people interviewed on TV? You think those interviewed are not chosen very carefully for their views? Even those interviewed in street voxpops are chosen to push an agenda – even the live ones have been pre-vetted for their attitudes.
I can’t believe anyone thinks ‘as seen on TV’ is evidence of anything but MSM bias.
‘A Confirmatory Vote’. Isn’t that what Donald Trump wants?
After indecisiveness on my part I reluctantly voted to remain. Yet when the party announced support for a second ref my heart sank because I knew it was a mistake.
The only thing I’d hoped for was MSMs obsession with trawling round Labour heartlands looking for anyone who would say they hated Corbyn was in a minority. After all what sort of long time Labour supporter votes for a lying incompetent Tory.
I’d be surprised if Starmer has the decency to apologise and admit that he and the other pro remain MPs were wrong. As for the Blairite denying sycophant Adonis I wouldn’t expect anything else from him.
The forthcoming actions of the party to address these findings and if found wanting may lead those ex Labour voters to possibly consider the party heir achy holds them in contempt and they done the right thing last year.
ps and another feather in the EQUALITY and human rights commission – They have found NO inequality at the BBC re payments to male and female presenters. Yeeee s like the Tory party needs no investigation to rampant racism and all forms of blatant bigotry. Whats the E in the EHRC❓ Excrement🔴
It’s refreshing to read your post BackofBeyond, I’m sure lots of people were in the same position as you. Had they not been swayed by people who ought to have known better (pundits like Jones & Mason, Euro MPs who didn’t want their snouts dragged from the trough, luvvies and celebrities, Starmer of course, and even in the end the likes of McDonnell and Abbott) and taken JC hostage against his better instincts, things might have been very different. More of the aforementioned weathercocks should have smelt a rat when they found themselves singing from the same hymn sheet as Mandelson, Campbell and Blair. It’s to their credit that Lavery and the others stuck to their guns and have now produced this painstaking research, of which Starmer and friends will take not the slightest notice (certainly not publicly). It’s sadder to read some of the denizens of this publication (Niven, Jack T) who are still in denial.
I’m not in denial at all about the result of the referendum, nor about the reasons Labour lost the election – which were part Brexit, part AS scam, part Labour Quislings and part Tory/MSM propaganda.
Blaming the loss solely on Brexit decisions, however misguided, is pure, self-exculpatory denial to excuse a doomed ukip adventure – now a catastrophe of growing proportions.
Check the map of results McNiv⛔️
David
FPTP means it doesn’t take a lot to swing the election
The refusal to honour the Brexit vote was way more than required
My story of how propaganda works in practice, its incessant
Canvassing in GE
Ive voted Labour all my life but i can’t vote for Jeremy Corbyn
Who did you vote for in 2017 GE
I voted Labour, i always vote Labour
At end of the day it was The Brexit Election
Labrebisgalloise, you say it better than i could plus point out the OBVIOUS blue warnings Campbell, Blair, Mandelson, Limp Dimms, Ummuna, Berger, Soubrey, Lammy, Phillips, Hodge… how many more warnings or hints did the deniers McNiv et al need❓❓❓
BackofBeyond I agree with most of what you say but seeing how the Tories have dealt with Covid-19, the corruption, the spiralling death toll & the repercussions of a no deal Brexit looming surely they cannot think that they’ve done the right thing by voting Tory last year?
Scotland will vote for Independence for exactly the same reason
They were told ‘If you want to guarantee staying in the EU then your only option is to vote for the Union’
So folk will take their revenge
No Deal brexit will make it a Landslide
Cannot be any more explicit, if you take the pics out of the electorate, why are you surprised when they give you ‘A Byker Teacake’
hilary, the post is about a report about why Labour lost those “red wall” votes, not about the rights and wrongs of Brexit. McNiven and the other idiots who refuse to admit to being wrong about insisting on the policy change on Brexit from the ’17 to ’19 election have successfully moved the debate on to the Brexit vote, because they refuse to admit they were politically naive about the effect of that change of policy.
Ian Lavery et al are still worried about public perceptions fed by the Mail and Sun of Johnny Foreigner and want to hide behind a tattered Union Jack. Quelle surprise.
Let’s not forget that even among the left there are jingoists, monarchists , anarchists and little Englanders, unfortunately these people often have the loudest voices.
How d’ya justify grouping anarchists in with “jingoists, monarchists, and Little Englanders”? Anarchists out of a radical vision of achieving a better world through non-oppressive means- a world free of want and hate. In what universe is that morally equivalent to being the sort of people who scream for war, worship inbred heriditary heads of state, or who see life as one country against the world?
What are you on about walsh, pointing out that the main reason Labour lost those 50 seats was because of the decision to go for a second vote on Brexit is not “hiding behind a tattered Union Jack” (sic), it is just recognising the reality of what happened. Why do you think the “Great Leader” has dropped all pretence of offering such a policy now he and the rest of the neoliberal wing of the LP are back in control. They knew all along what effect that policy position would have on Labour’s election prospects. Sadly however, many of those who post here regularly failed to heed the advance warnings about it from sensible people, and as we can read above, are still in denial. Still it is always difficult to admit you have been had isn’t it.
David McNiven, Of course the mass media had an impact on the final election result, but to ignore the difference between the 2017 result and the 2019 one is perhaps turning a blind eye to the reality, you clearly don’t want to admit that along with Starmer you got it badly wrong.
Starmer though I believe had ulterior motives for peddling his side of the debate, and so far is continuing as he intends to go on. Clearly there was a large section of the party (majority), that wanted to remain in the EU, they no doubt had a myriad of views as to why they were so inclined, and Starmer who originally backed Jeremy Corbyn’s respecting the referendum vote, then changed to supporting the second referendum, unsurprisingly putting Jeremy at odds with the vast majority of the members.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that none of this was by accident as we have seen since he became leader, he was so committed to Europe that he has backed Johnson’s bid to leave the EU as soon as possible. Saying that the second referendum is now over.
If I were a remainer; although I did vote remain in the referendum, because I didn’t want this futile debate to ever have taken place, understanding that it was only there to serve Tory interests the longer the farce went on – I really would be disappointed to think Starmer usurped me into believing he genuinely believed in the EU when he has u-turned twice about-face on it for his own political interests.
I didn’t get anything wrong and I still haven’t.
You nationalist fucktards voted for a stupid policy designed to keep the Tory party from breaking apart – because they took a leaf out of ukip’s book and promised you it would keep out immigrants – and here you are four years later trying to pass it off as a brilliant socialist plan to “beat neoliberalism” and “take back control” ffs.
Nothing to do with racism, right? Despite the “red wall” towns having higher than average immigrant populations that’s just a coincidence, right?
Working out well for you is it? Before Covid there was a jobs boom because of all the EU workers going home was there?
Brexit is a slow motion car crash that’s already done untold damage to your British Leyland Allegro and you haven’t even hit the brick wall yet.
Even your kids and grandkids knew better than to vote for Brexit, you daft old biddies.
Clearly David you haven’t got a clue what you were voting for and the people on the left that wanted an alternative to the Brexiteers and remainers like you.
Our’s is not a nationalist view, but a rational perspective of our economic and social position relative to the EU. We are not a trading nation but a net importer of other countries manufactured goods, we have trade deficits with the EU and the rest of the world going back to Thatcher, who dismantled our manufacturing base.
But the other major issue is that the EU that people like you probably believe in is now over 30 years out of date, Neo-liberal politicians are dismantling the social benefits there just the Tories are doing here for exactly the same reasons.
The Euro also is strangling the European economy, because of those same politicians who choose it that way, it doesn’t have to be that way, but that’s the way they choose following the Neo-Liberal agenda.
The ONLY way to have won the referendum for Remain would have been for the Remain campaign to have addressed the fact that the EU brought at least relative prosperity to Scotland, the Southeast/Southwest of England and London, while leaving the North, the North East, the North West and a large chunk of Wales out in the cold economically, and to have pledged to fight to end this regional economic exclusion. Why did the Remain campaign categorically refuse to acknowledge this situation? Why did they not see that creating a situation in which one region is denied any economic benefits of EU membership while all other regions received such benefits?
Some interesting use of vocabulary….it is not the medium that is the message, it is the HATE. That same HATRED of the working class that emanates everyday from the BBC; Channel 4 & the Guardian. The comfortable bourgeois ‘Smugs’ who control MSM & ensure that ‘Socialism’ & anyone who promotes it, is ridiculed; marginalised; insulted & abused. The ‘Deplorables’ aka the ‘Downtrodden’ who have never had a single day in the Sunshine, dare question the Neo-Liberal elites & vote (for once) for their own self interests. There were no major political parties who would champion their cause. The Labour Party became the Liberals Mk2..Who in the Labour Party will stand up & be counted? The bourgeoisie take care of their own.
There are some uncomfortable truths that the Bourgeois seek to erase from history. The ‘suffragettes. never campaigned for ‘Universal Suffrage’, they only demanded ‘parity with their own class. Meetings were held in country houses & Emmeline Pankhurst campaigned as a ‘Tory PPC’ with the slogan “For King; Country & Empire’. In 1914 Suffragettes demanded conscription that was ‘class based’. Young working class boys should be sent to the trenches & lower class girls sent to work as canaries in munitions factories. There were attempts made to infiltrate the Labour Party, but only Sylvia became a Socialist. Her mother & sister despised the ‘riff raff’, which is why Sylvia never spoke to her mother & sister Christabel. The elites made some very interesting alliances with other fascists.
Nothing changes, the Bourgeoisie still look after themselves as ‘the Class War is Over’. Equality is not for the poor. The mass poverty & austerity of Post War Britain was a characteristic of the ‘make do & mend’ generations of the working class, especially the women. I was born in 1940s & brought up by my grandmother because both my parents had to work to scrape together a living. Social mobility became an aspiration of the 1960s, but quickly forgotten.
According to BBC, almost one million economic migrants have recently left Britain & the pandemic. They have gone home. Post War, Enoch Powell invited migration from Caribbean to drive the buses & trains that the local population couldn’t do. There is one basic rule of economics that never changes…….a surfeit of unskilled labour will ensure low labour costs. Tony Blair also knew that & the ‘gig economy’ was born. We have no need to train doctors nor nurses as we can ‘cherry pick’ from the residue of Empire, to show how liberal we are. The working classes see this every day, but if you dare comment, you are a racist.
Why would you vote to maintain the status quo?