Labour must assess what went so badly wrong – Apsana Begum MP
Apsana Begum MP has released the following statement following Keir Starmer’s resignation.
It is difficult to accept the words of the departing Prime Minister, on the ‘political, financial and moral bankruptcy’ of the Labour Party he took over.
In 2019, the Labour Party had over half a million members – a membership that’s now halved, with many members having been suspended or expelled without due process, and many others feeling they had to leave the Party.
Politically and morally, Keir Starmer clamped down on civil liberties, cut disabled people’s benefits, oversaw UK complicity in the genocide in Gaza, and pursued a policy of trying to outflank the right on immigration.
The purpose of the Starmer-McSweeney project had only had one central political aim: to disenfranchise the left.
After two years in government, Keir Starmer has said that his proudest moment in government was abolishing the two-child limit. This is ironic given that I and other left MPs were suspended in 2024 for voting for its abolition.
To turn the tide and even consider a second term, the Labour Party – at all levels – must properly assess what has gone so badly wrong. The right lessons must be learned, or the next Labour leader will only repeat the same outcomes.
This includes recognising that the Labour Party’s biggest threat is that we are haemorrhaging support to our left.
The Labour Party faces existential questions. It is not just a change of face that is needed but a full political reconfiguration.
This must mean a full ideological break away from the continuity conservatism, privatisation, and the assaults on migrant rights, trans rights, protest rights, and disability rights.
From Labour, voters are demanding a transformative political agenda that empowers our communities, rebuilds our public services and tackles poverty.
For that reason, I believe that it would be best to hold a contest in which the values and policies of prospective leadership candidates can be tested.
At this moment, it does not look like that will happen, and so I urge my fellow MPs to consider how our actions from now will help to build a Party that is accountable to the demands of the people outside of Westminster.
- Apsana Begum is the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse – you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
- This statement is taken from Apsana Begum’s X account posted on 22 June 2026.
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