The idea that the result is somehow a win for Starmer after Labour’s worst-ever performance there is nonsense and the right knows it
Since Labour’s disastrous performance in Thursday’s North Shropshire by-election – the party’s worst-ever result in that seat, falling from a strong second in 2019 while the LibDems surged by more than thirty points to take it from the Tories – Keir Starmer’s supporters have been desperately trying to spin it as some kind of victory for Starmer’s politics and lack of opposition, as if Labour stepped aside to allow the ‘yellow Tories’ a clear run and the win vindicates them.
But what the right really thought about North Shropshire can be seen in a tweet by Luke Akehurst, of the party’s hard right ‘Labour First’ faction. ten days before the result – and the Labour right saw no chance for the LibDems to win. None at all – but they thought that Labour could:
As the election drew nearer and Keir Starmer’s unpopularity was obvious, the spin shifted to a claim that the seat was ‘impossible’ – but the party’s desperation to get more campaigners to North Shropshire and of course the eventual result showed this to be just as big a nonsense.
As Skwawkbox observed on the day of the result, the foolishness of Starmer’s tactics were exposed (though it was already obvious) by the outcome: there’s no room in the political ecosystem for the third, watered-down Tory party into which Starmer has turned Labour. If people want Tory, they’ll go for the full-fat version. If they want ‘Tory but we can claim we’re nicer’, they have the LibDems.
People want a real Labour party to vote for. One that has a vision for real change and is unafraid and unashamed to make the arguments. Under Keir Starmer, the nation is deprived of that possibility and that is a crime against the many millions in this country suffering under the disease of Tory government.
No spin can hide that reality.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.