The New Left: Could a Jeremy Corbyn Led Party Really Break the Duopoly?
Support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
The Labour Party? You can't live with it, and you can't live without it. Debate about whether progressive change happens with or without Labour is as old as the hills. Since its formation, from the Independent Labour Party onwards, socialists have debated whether to change Labour or replace it.
This eternal debate has been given a shot in the arm by the possible, or even likely, creation of a new left party based around Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. What's happening, why and what's likely to be the result?
Politics like nature abhors a vacuum. Since 2020, under Keir Starmer, or more precisely under Morgan McSweeney, Labour hasn't just veered right in values and policy terms in search of now mystic 'Red Wall' voters, but more importantly in terms of their narrow factional goals, have waged a relentless war not just to defeat the left in the party but to eradicate it.
By a miracle of political organising and determination, a tiny faction of hard right operators in Labour's ranks, who were facing extinction under Corbyn and Momentum, tricked the party into backing their 'Corbynism without Corbyn' candidate before turning their fire on the very party members they had cynically courted. Now the job was to ensure that nothing like Corbynism could ever happen again - the tomb would be sealed.
If you are on the left, why would you stay in such a hostile environment? Not least when Greens and Muslim independents have shown what is possible at the last election, and left-wing Labour MPs we're having the whip withdrawn for voting against government policies that would make the poor even poorer. But while a vacuum in politics is hard to ignore, it's still a difficult space to fill effectively.
Our democratic system is built around a two-party model. The voting system is designed explicitly to punish any party outside of the duopoly by making it almost impossible for minor parties to turn votes into seats.
'Progressives Must Unite Against Nigel Farage and National Populism or Reform Will Win'
Neal Lawson on the series of numbers that really matter in UK politics right now
Neal Lawson
This duopoly is further embedded through the way parties are funded by the rich, the way parliament recognises and rewards His Majesty's Loyal Opposition and the way the media reports on politics as a battle between only two adversaries. It all adds up to party brand regime that looks more like Coke versus Pepsi than a genuine democratic choice.
It's therefore no surprise that since Labour replaced the Liberal Democrats as the main centre-left alternative to the Conservatives almost 100 years ago, that no other party has broken the stranglehold.
The SDP came close in the 1980s but wilted under the pressure of first past the post. Change UK couldn't resist what they
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
The Labour Party? You can't live with it, and you can't live without it. Debate about whether progressive change happens with or without Labour is as old as the hills. Since its formation, from the Independent Labour Party onwards, socialists have debated whether to change Labour or replace it.
This eternal debate has been given a shot in the arm by the possible, or even likely, creation of a new left party based around Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. What's happening, why and what's likely to be the result?
Politics like nature abhors a vacuum. Since 2020, under Keir Starmer, or more precisely under Morgan McSweeney, Labour hasn't just veered right in values and policy terms in search of now mystic 'Red Wall' voters, but more importantly in terms of their narrow factional goals, have waged a relentless war not just to defeat the left in the party but to eradicate it.
By a miracle of political organising and determination, a tiny faction of hard right operators in Labour's ranks, who were facing extinction under Corbyn and Momentum, tricked the party into backing their 'Corbynism without Corbyn' candidate before turning their fire on the very party members they had cynically courted. Now the job was to ensure that nothing like Corbynism could ever happen again - the tomb would be sealed.
If you are on the left, why would you stay in such a hostile environment? Not least when Greens and Muslim independents have shown what is possible at the last election, and left-wing Labour MPs we're having the whip withdrawn for voting against government policies that would make the poor even poorer. But while a vacuum in politics is hard to ignore, it's still a difficult space to fill effectively.
Our democratic system is built around a two-party model. The voting system is designed explicitly to punish any party outside of the duopoly by making it almost impossible for minor parties to turn votes into seats.
'Progressives Must Unite Against Nigel Farage and National Populism or Reform Will Win'
Neal Lawson on the series of numbers that really matter in UK politics right now
Neal Lawson
This duopoly is further embedded through the way parties are funded by the rich, the way parliament recognises and rewards His Majesty's Loyal Opposition and the way the media reports on politics as a battle between only two adversaries. It all adds up to party brand regime that looks more like Coke versus Pepsi than a genuine democratic choice.
It's therefore no surprise that since Labour replaced the Liberal Democrats as the main centre-left alternative to the Conservatives almost 100 years ago, that no other party has broken the stranglehold.
The SDP came close in the 1980s but wilted under the pressure of first past the post. Change UK couldn't resist what they
Activity