UK

Local Labour members resign to campaign for Corbyn

1 day ago
By Iain Watson, Political Correspondent

PA Media
Mr Corbyn had the Labour party whip suspended in 2020 and it was never restored

Leading members of the Labour Party in Islington North, the seat represented by Jeremy Corbyn since 1983, have resigned or announced they are willing to be expelled to campaign for him.

Former Labour leader Mr Corbyn is standing as an independent after the party whip was suspended from him in 2020 - and was never restored - when he suggested the scale of antisemitism in the party was ‘dramatically overstated’ by opponents.

Labour declined to comment but said its rules were clear.

According to these, any member who supports a non-Labour candidate will be expelled if they haven’t already resigned.

The letter, addressed to "voters of Islington North" and signed by dozens of people, tells local Labour members were "denied the right to choose our own candidate" for the general election.

It adds the group had not taken its decision lightly, but had to "take a stand in the name of democracy and justice".

Signatories include chair Alison McGarry and two vice chairs who tendered their resignations in the past week, as well as an assistant secretary who expected to be expelled.

The letter was also signed by the constituency secretary who resigned when Jeremy Corbyn announced he’d stand as an independent, and by office bearers in local branches.

A recent poll in the north London constituency suggested Mr Corbyn was trailing behind the official Labour candidate.

His supporters will see the letter as a boost for his campaign.

The full list of general election candidates standing in the Islington North constituency is as follows:

Liberal Democrat, Vikas Aggarwal
Independent, Jeremy Corbyn
Conservative, Karen Harries
Independent, Paul Josling
Green, Sheridan Kates
Labour, Praful Nargund
Reform UK, Martyn Nelson

Revolt Against Keir Starmer’s Labour by Long-Time Backers Puts Top Team Stars at Risk

SIR KEIR STARMER'S RED TORIES

Isabella Ward, Ailbhe Rea and Olivia Konotey-Ahulu
Sat, 29 June 2024 

(Bloomberg) -- Birmingham resident Johur Uddin has always voted Labour. But with the UK opposition party on the cusp of a potentially record election victory next week, the 56-year-old consultant says he’ll break with the habit of a lifetime on July 4 and mark his ballot paper with an X next to an independent candidate.

A perception that Labour has drifted from its roots, coupled with party leader Keir Starmer’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza have driven Uddin away. The sentiment was shared by four of the five men with him at the Legacy West Midlands charity’s office in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency, who are eying independent candidates — with one also weighing the Green Party.

“The values of Labour have completely changed,” said Uddin. “Before it was more for the working people and there was a lot of social justice” — a focus that’s been lost, he said.

The Birmingham men provide a flavor of how some traditionally Labour-backing groups — a mix of Muslims, environmentalists and the left wing — are searching for a new voice after the party tacked to the political center in its bid for power. In constituencies with a Muslim population of 20% or more, Labour support is eight points lower than in 2019, while the Green vote climbed eight points, Bloomberg analysis of YouGov polling data shows. Bloomberg reporting also anecdotally suggests a move toward independent candidates by Muslim voters in some seats.

There’s little prospect the trend will cost Labour the election — the opposition leads Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives by more than 20 points in national polling and is projected to secure a record majority. But some of the party’s leading lights, including prospective justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and would-be culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire, could lose their seats, forcing Starmer into a reshuffle of his top team just as he gets his feet under the desk at 10 Downing Street.

Moreover, several Labour MPs, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they worry the change in Labour’s focus could store up problems for the future. Over a couple of election cycles, they said their safe urban seats could shift toward the Greens or independents without careful messaging in the constituency. The current strategy of appealing to voters switching from the Tories and those who backed Brexit isn’t geared toward urban, liberal electorates.

“The question is: is this going to be the sort of thing which hurts them for one election?” said Oxford University researcher Andrew Barclay. “Or is it actually a permanent chipping away at the emotional link between Muslim voters and the Labour party?”

The rumblings of discontent on Starmer’s left underscore the potential fragility of his political mandate, even if he wins big in Thursday’s election. Deep local fiscal problems and an increasingly uncertain global security environment means his would-be government could quickly face issues that exacerbates divisions in Labour.

Central to the shift in sentiment, especially among Muslims, is Starmer’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war. He’s been steadfast in his support of Israel’s right to self defense since the conflict erupted in October following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel. In an early interview, he appeared to say Israel had the “right” to withhold power and water from Gaza — further damaging his standing with Muslims, as did the perception that he was slow to call for a cease-fire.

In a sign of how complicated the issue will be for Labour in power, Starmer on Saturday didn’t commit to publishing UK government legal advice on arms exports to Israel — something he has long called on Sunak’s administration to do.

“I haven’t seen it, I don’t know how up to date it is and therefore we’ll have to first win the election and then assess the situation,” he said in an interview. Starmer also said he accepts that publishing the full advice would be difficult, suggesting Labour could be willing to publish a summary instead.

Labour tensions have been exacerbated by Starmer’s refusal to allow his predecessor as party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to stand for reelection as a Labour candidate because of a row over antisemitism. Corbyn, a left-winger, was closely aligned to the Palestinian cause and in the past called Hamas his “friends.”

The fallout has seen Muslim councilors quit from Oxford to Manchester, Labour MPs stage a major parliamentary rebellion, and the party lose the Rochdale constituency to left-wing disrupter George Galloway in a by-election after suspending its candidate. Starmer’s popularity among ethnic minorities is the lowest recorded by any Labour leader since 1996, according to Ipsos.

Patrick Cunningham, a 26 year-old engineer, said Labour’s stance on Gaza has contributed to the decision by several of his friends to vote for Debbonaire’s opponent in Bristol Central, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, whose pledge to call for a Gaza cease-fire features large in her leaflets distributed around inner city shops.

But in the city in southwestern England — not known for its Muslim population — most residents who told Bloomberg they were moving to the Greens from Labour cited Starmer’s retreat on climate pledges in February, after he cut a pledge to spend £28 billion a year transitioning the UK to green energy by more than 80%.

That’s left Debbonaire fighting for her political life just as a government job beckons after serving 9 years in opposition. So-called MRP polls using seat-by-seat analysis by YouGov, Ipsos and We Think project she’ll lose, though others show her comfortably winning. Voters Bloomberg spoke to within her district were evenly split between the Greens and Labour.

One person familiar with the matter said Debbonaire has been privately thinking of her preparation for government as a “handover note” of her culture brief. Nevertheless Debbonaire — who beat Denyer by more than 28,000 votes in what was then Bristol West in 2019 and also beat the Greens into second place in 2015 — told Bloomberg last week that she’s confident of reelection.

Some 75 miles to the northeast, in Birmingham Ladywood, where almost half the population are Muslim, intention to vote Labour has plummeted by 29 percentage points since 2019, Bloomberg analysis shows. While none of the MRP polls suggest Labour will struggle there, party figures suggested Mahmood faces a tough battle against independent candidate and “Tiktok lawyer” Akhmed Yakoob — who won 20% of the vote in Birmingham in May’s West Midlands mayoralty election.

The progress made by independents is harder to gauge in MRP polls because the seat-by-seat projections often rely on data from previous elections, which may not capture them.

Mahmood declined to comment on her prospects, but previously told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast that Labour needs to regain the trust of the Muslim community.

Muslim dissatisfaction is also a factor in Dewsbury and Batley, where Heather Iqbal, a one-time aide to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, is standing. Former colleagues fret she could lose to independent candidate Iqbal Mohamed, whose posters adorn Batley’s lamp posts and shop windows.

In May’s council elections, independent candidates won 50% of the vote in the area, and some of the MRP polls suggest strong showings for the Greens, independents and Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party. Despite all the MRP polls predicting Labour will win the seat, none of the dozens of voters Bloomberg spoke to said they would vote that way.

Health care worker Ayesha criticized Labour’s response to the Gaza conflict, saying they’ve lost her support.

“I want to vote for the person who is supporting Gaza,” said Shakir Husain, a 44-year-old civil engineer.

“There’s some trust to build back,” Iqbal — a Muslim herself — said, echoing Mahmood over a cup of tea in central Batley, where a billboard of her opponent looms over a row of derelict buildings.

Mohamed, for his part, says that while the Tories have let the area down nationally, Labour has done so locally. “We need people who are from the community to just hold these elite rich politicians to account,” the Durham-educated management consultant told Bloomberg.

To be sure, Muslims make up just 6.5% of the population of England and Wales, rising to more than a third of voters in only a handful of seats. “The Muslim vote is not going to affect who has the keys to Number 10,” said Parveen Akhtar, a political scientist at Aston University, noting that Muslims don’t vote as a bloc.

In all, about five Labour seats may be in danger due to the loss of traditional voters, a senior party official said. One seat where the party faces a challenge is Islington North, which Corbyn has represented since 1983 and where he’s now running as an independent. Another official said that in Scotland, some hoped-for gains from the Scottish National Party aren’t turning to Labour as strongly as expected, with many contests appearing on a knife-edge.

“We are working hard to deliver as many Labour MPs as possible in the general election and our campaigners are bringing our message of change to people across the country,” a Labour Party spokesperson said.

With all the main polls tipping Labour for a huge win, it would be tempting for the party to ignore setbacks in a handful of seats. But Anthony Wells, Director of YouGov’s political polling warned the party should watch closely the results in places like Bristol, Birmingham and Batley.

“When they’ve had the cost of governing and making hard decisions in quite a difficult economic background, they’re going to face far more difficulty in terms of hanging on to voters,” Wells said. “They probably want to keep an eye on now where those potential weaknesses are so they know which places they need to protect and be defensive about in four years’ time.”

--With assistance from Eamon Akil Farhat and Ellen Milligan.

(Updates with Starmer interview comment in 10th paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

 

Act Now – Doing nothing is not an option!

Professor Matthew Johnson introduces an important new Report which was launched today

JUNE 27, 2024LABOUR HUB EDITORS

The Common Sense Policy Group (commonsensepolicygroup.com) comprises academics, policymakers, third sector leaders, community representatives, media figures and people with lived experience. We are all committed to creating a fair, equal and inclusive Britain through developing and influencing redistributive policy that addresses the inequality and exclusion that has come to define our nation. We present consensus on feasible, affordable and overwhelmingly popular evidence-based policies that can form the basis for a programme for progressive Government.

Chaired by Matthew Johnson at Northumbria University, the group includes: Danny Dorling (University of Oxford), Jamie Driscoll (Mayor of North of Tyne Combined Authority), Irene Hardill (Northumbria University), Cat Hobbs (We Own It), Elliott Johnson (Northumbria University), Neal Lawson (Compass), Jennifer Nadel (Compassion in Politics), Daniel Nettle (Northumbria University and Institut Jean Nicod), Kate Pickett (University of York, Health Equity North), Zack Polanski (Deputy Leader of the Green Party, London Assembly Member), Allyson Pollock (Newcastle University), Howard Reed (Northumbria University, Landman Economics), David Taylor-Robinson (University of Liverpool, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Health Equity North), Ian Robson (Northumbria University), Graham Stark (Northumbria University) and Richard Wilkinson (University of Nottingham and Northumbria).

Key policy points

Act Now: A Vision for a Better Future and New Social Contract is a Beveridge-style report published by Manchester University Press (£9.99) this week ahead of the 2024 General Election.

It is directly aimed at providing a Beveridge-style programme for government to end our era of crisis. It is the bare minimum for national renewal and has been tested extensively for feasibility, affordability and popularity.

We have a feasible, affordable and demonstrably popular plan to rebuild Britain as successfully as the Beveridge-inspired reforms of 1945:

• Basic income is the key distributive means of securing society that makes the rest of a new social contract possible, including by reducing pressure on health care and disruption caused by transition to net zero.
• A properly funded Green New Deal, with a  quadruple lock to protect workers in carbon intensive industries, is fundamental to creating jobs and securing our future
• Nationalization of energy and water are essential means of securing Britain and protecting the country against international volatility
• Health and Social Care can only be cost-effective when nationally owned and operated
• Early years and educational investments are critical to reducing pressure on our criminal justice system and increasing productivity as we transition to a new economy
• We can build our way out of the housing crisis and gradually remove the state-led transfer of wealth to private landlords and speculators in the process
• Our infrastructure can be transformed through targeted, regional control of transport
• Democratic reform to control lobbying and corruption is in the interests of progressive parties
• We can fund an expansive programme through wealth, carbon and corporation taxes, massively increasing our tax base and yield (£544.6bn) and productivity sufficiently to create a Britain that leads the world in quality of life, equality and security within ten years.

Failure to adopt such a popular programme and restore faith in politics will leave open the possibility of a right-wing takeover in 5 years’ time.

Costings, productivity and taxation

The policies in this programme have been costed using standard costing mechanisms. The reforms outlined have been analysed using a model of the relationship between gross value added (a measure of economic output) and public and private spending on services and investment at the regional and local levels in the UK and constituent countries. We assume that the capital spending commitments in our recommendations will have positive impacts on productivity via multiplier effects. We use multipliers estimated by researchers at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) at University College London using data for a set of European countries between 1970 and 2016.  The IIPP estimates suggest that the multiplier for public investment in infrastructure after five years is between 2.43 and 3.12 (depending on the precise model used). We use the IIPP central estimate of 2.74 for the estimates in this book. A multiplier of 2.74 implies that an increase of £1 million a year in public spending on infrastructure produces an increase of £2.74 million in GDP.

The initial spending commitments in this book total approximately £377 billion a year, of which just over 80 per cent is current spending rather than capital spending. However, current spending also has multiplier effects. For example, additional spending on the NHS contributes to a healthier workforce with lower levels of premature mortality and morbidity and better mental health. Basic income also has positive multiplier effects on health. We assume that the multiplier impact of current spending is equal to one- third that of capital spending, that is a multiplier of 0.91. The estimated increase in GDP due to higher capital and current spending generates additional tax receipts from taxes on earnings and corporate profits, as well as receipts from consumption taxes due to higher spending. In line with the current share of tax receipts in UK GDP, we assume that tax receipts increase by an amount equal to 40 per cent of the increase in GDP.

According to our modelling, taking second-round productivity impacts into account results in an increase of just over £206 billion in tax receipts. This increases the total amount raised in tax from around £339 billion to £545 billion. This £339 billion in tax receipts is enough to fund the £308 billion of current spending commitments in our plans – including the starter basic income scheme (£182.8 billion) – with £31 billion left over. With an additional £206 billion of tax receipts after taking second round impacts into account, it is possible to fund basic income scheme 2 (that is, the ‘halfway to MIS’ scheme – an additional £210.8 billion compared with the starter scheme) with almost £26 billion to spare. Given longer- term positive productivity effects of this basic income scheme and the other spending plans in this report, there is every reason to think that the UK would be able to afford basic income scheme 3 – payments to all individuals in the UK at the Minimum Income Standard level (currently an additional £276.1 billion) – at some point in the not- too- distant future. This would be a huge and welcome achievement.

It also demonstrates the fundamental importance of running Britain like a business. If we invest in the right areas, we generate wealth that cannot otherwise be generated. When we distribute that wealth effectively, we not only produce gains in those regions and among those communities and individuals that need it most: we grow radically as a nation. If we want Britain to survive and thrive, we must invest.

The programme in five minutes

We live in an era of permanent crisis. We have become accustomed to conditions that once would have felt life-threatening. Millions of people in work are unable to afford to heat their homes or pay their mortgages and waits for urgent hospital treatment are now often measured in years. Former Chancellor George Osborne was fond of saying that austerity was needed to fix the roof while the sun was shining. Instead, we are left with a national house that is close to being condemned.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. In the 1940s, with the country facing the devastation of the Second World War, Lord Beveridge proposed changes to public services that would transform the country for the better. Now facing our own 21st Century crisis, in this report we propose commonsense solutions to key problems in British life. From health and social care to transport and education, we show how we can make public services much better and the economy much more productive. We also show that we can do so without breaking the bank.

The authors come from different walks of life and have different political perspectives, but the policies presented here are based on evidence and can, and should, be adopted by parties across the spectrum. The findings of the report are just as compelling as those of Beveridge eighty years ago: we can solve our structural crises through evidence-based policies that are highly popular and that can create a better, wealthier future quickly. We must Act Now.

What do we propose?

We propose that we every national policy should be scrutinised on the basis of five principles:

1. increase equality?
2. promote freedom from domination?
3. tackle the social determinants of health?
4. build community wealth?
5. level up places?

Social security: We propose reestablishing a social safety net that works for all of us by introducing a Basic Income for all permanent UK residents of £75 per week for adults and £50 for children, increasing to £185 per week for adults within five years (removing some conditional benefits) and a full Minimum Income Standard payment of around £295 per adult within ten years, which would remove most conditional benefits and housing benefit in particular. It is only an intervention with Beveridge-scale ambition that can secure those of us in as well as out of work and rebuild our country.

Green New Deal: We propose investing a minimum of £28 billion annually through a National Investment Bank in decarbonising and expanding energy supply and reducing expenditure and emissions, while ending new oil and gas licences, with a quadruple lock for workers whose industries are affected. We propose leveraging further private investment through tax incentives.

We also propose taking full social control over energy, water and transport networks, devolved to community level in line with the community wealth principle and regenerating the countryside and creating marine protected areas in the interests of nature. Finally, we propose investing in a National Building Service to support decarbonisation efforts in housing, making energy efficient development mandatory and placing the costs of disposal and waste on the producers.

Public Utilities: In addition to the Green New Deal policies, we propose bringing the energy network and production back into public ownership while banning new oil and gas extraction and transitioning to clean energy in three years. We also propose progressive billing where users get a guaranteed amount of energy paid for and heavy users pay more. We would also trigger the English water companies’ 25-year notice period to bring them back into public ownership, legislate to cut that timeline and take failing water companies into special administration, while punishing others that perform poorly. Once public, we propose investment in infrastructure at large scale to reduce leaks and waste.

Health and Social Care: We propose legislating to ensure that health and social care is funded and delivered publicly, including nationalising GP Practices, integrating social care into the NHS, free at the point of need, bringing all outsourced contracts back in house and ending private provision through NHS facilities. We propose reinstating funding back to real-terms pre-austerity levels, doubling the number of training places for doctors nurses and dentists as rapidly as possible. Establishing a National Pharmaceutical Service to ensure that publicly funded research benefits the public and the public purse and end the drug manufacture shortages blighting the NHS.

Early childhood: Although many issues would be addressed by introduction of Basic Income, we propose investment to expand free school meals to all, ensure that schools can support child health, improve secondary and post-16 funding and expand Family Hubs, health visiting and children’s centres. We also propose embedding impact assessments for all policies, use devolved Citizens Assemblies that include young people in policymaking and pass the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill to level England and Northern Ireland up to Welsh and Scottish standards.

Education: We propose increasing schools spending by 9%, sixth form by 23%, further education by 14% and higher education by 18% to return to pre-austerity levels. We also propose prioritising care, consideration and cooperation and reduce the cliff-edge implications of assessment that harm pupils’ health and wellbeing. We propose removing private school charitable status, prohibiting profit-making and merging public and private provision.

We propose granting Local Authorities direct control over admissions policy, ensuring a broad and balanced curriculum, introducing democratic structures in collaboration with experts, and ensuring that teachers are graduates with core academic capacities. We also propose removing further and higher education fees after five years and replacing the Education Maintenance Allowance during the transition.

Housing: We set out a fair Proportional Property Tax, introducing taxes on second homes, holiday homes and empty commercial property, and ending the spare bedroom tax. We propose enhancing the existing ‘right-to-stay’ into a ‘right-to-sell’, giving mortgagors the right to become tenants rather than face eviction. We propose using the previously mentioned National Building Service funded by the National Investment Bank to build as many publicly owned houses as capacity permits. We propose increasing the Basic Income payment and public housing availability enough that housing benefit can be withdrawn over time so that private landlords can no longer profiteer from public funds. We propose introducing rent controls and eliminating leasehold. We propose making squatting only to seek shelter a civil, not criminal, offence once again, while making illegal actions by landlords and bankers that deprive people of their home and shelter criminal, rather than civil, offences, since their actions demonstrably harm life. And we propose standards to build new homes that are planned to last for centuries, both for sustainability and value for buyers.

Transport: We outline a transformative programme of democratic control that turns government obsession with road building on its head. By fully funding from land value capture, salary sacrifice and pension investment in a Total Transport Network (TTN) of buses, trams and cycleways, with powers devolved to Combined Mayoral Authorities, we can eliminate the traffic jam and all the associated dead time.

Democratic reform: We set out forms of electoral and Parliamentary reform that increase competition and the ethos of public service and reduce in-built incentives for careerism and unwillingness to take risks for the public good. We argue that increasing consistency of administrative bodies across the UK while devolving greater powers to nations and regions is essential to making policy that is responsive. We specifically propose adopting Alternative Vote+ for the House of Commons and Single Transferable Vote for an Assembly of the Nations and Regions, as well as 500 constituencies with 150 top up seats allocated proportionally by Combined Mayoral Authorities across the UK. We also propose moving Parliament out of London to parts of the UK on a five-yearly basis in each location, ensuring that political candidates live in a constituency for two years before becoming eligible for election, and introducing a uniform structure of Scottish style Local Authorities and English style Combined Authorities across the UK.

We also propose  banning second jobs, paid lobbying and all foreign lobbying. We also propose funding political party work in the public interest through expanded Policy Development Grants, while banning donations to political parties by profit making organisations and individuals . We suggest tying politicians’ pay to the national median wage via a wage ratio of a maximum of 2 and introducing an independent Integrity and Ethics Commission.

Shifting the tax burden from work to wealth: The policies we outline throughout this report require significant funding, and we show that providing it through responsible capital investments and taxation on wealth, carbon emissions and profits advances a new economy that serves the interests of the vast majority of us and stimulates inward investment. The taxes we outline reflect public preferences and point towards viable, productive means of making the economy work for us. We use complex, cutting-edge microsimulation modelling to show the impacts of these reforms on measures of performance linked directly to our everyday experience, providing an overwhelming economic argument for the policies we set out above.

We want to run Britain as a business. By this, we do not mean running a country based on unsustainable pay ratios and offshoring labour that leaves most of us in a perpetual state of personal indebtedness and zero-sum competition for work. Rather, we mean a collective endeavour in wealth creation in which investments lead to an overall increase in resources and a distribution of those resources to those parts of our society that need them most to function. By addressing the historical anomaly of viewing income tax on work as the sole means of funding Britain, we set out a fairer and popular means of advancing each of our five principles of reform through our new economy.

We dispel the myth that smaller state spending produces growth and argue for investment in the structure of Britain in the same way as every business has to invest in order to generate wealth. We propose simplifying and limiting tax increases on income from work given the declining value of that income tax passive wealth and close the fairness gap by ensuring that income from work is no longer taxed at a higher rate than income from dividends. We would increase fundamentally affordable taxes, such as corporation tax, which is paid on profits, not overheads. We propose disincentivising through new taxes carbon-producing corporate activities that cost us more in the long-term than leaving the resources in the ground. We also suggest removing the enormous number of badly targeted or damaging tax reliefs.

Popularity: In our survey of Red Wall residents, we found an average level of support for the whole programme of 70.8%, with 61.7% among Conservative and 82.8% among Labour 2019 voters. Nationally, approval was 73.9%, with 51.3% among those intending to vote Conservative, 78.5% among those intending to vote Labour and 68.3% among those who don’t know who they will vote for or who don’t intend to vote at present. There is no appetite to do nothing!

Act Now has been widely endorsed. John McDonnell MP, former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: “This is coherent, radical, and feasible manifesto for government. Given the chance, it would ignite enthusiasm, win the young back to politics, and enable people to enjoy security and freedom in their life with one another and with the powers that be. It calls us back to a realistic image of the good society.”

Matthew Johnson is Professor of Public Policy at Northumbria University.

Main image: Professor Matthew Johnson speaking at the launch of Act Now. Image in text: Other members of the Act Now team at the launch. Images c/o Labour Hub.

A real manifesto for change

Mike Phipps previews at Act now: A vision for a better future, by the Common Sense Policy Group, published today by the Manchester University Press.

JUNE 25, 2024

LABOUR HUB 

Common sense is an important feature of any election narrative. One of the ways in which Labour’s brilliant 2017 manifesto was able to dominate that electoral campaign and deprive Theresa May of her majority was to emphasise its common sense credentials – that austerity wasn’t working, that the definition of insanity was sticking with it and hoping for different results and that it was time to try something new.

This obvious point allowed Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour to rightly appear as the purveyors of common sense democratic socialist solutions and portray the Tories as swivel-eyed ideologues wedded to the stale dogma of failed neoliberal economics. By 2019, the Tories had swapped austerity for Johnson’s boosterist and ultimately fraudulent ‘levelling up’ agenda and Labour’s tactic of continuing to attack austerity was less effective, to put it mildly.

Keir Starmer may present himself as a common sense politician but you don’t have to delve too far into the Labour manifesto to realise its solutions fall short. Its main aim seems to be to make Labour as inoffensive to vested interests as possible. As a result, the ‘solutions’ presented to the multiple crises Britain is facing have been diluted and triangulated to such an extent that they barely scrape the surface of the problems we face.

Today’s new Report, compiled by a prestigious team led by Northumbria University’s Professor Matthew Johnson and including the prolific Professor Danny Dorling, North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll, We Own It Director Cat Hobbs, Compass Director Neal Lawson, health campaigner Professor Allyson Pollock and a dozen other academics and activists, has some excellent suggestions to fill this vacuum. These include:

• A basic income for all that would provide an essential safety net, an idea supported by nearly 70% of the population.
• A properly funded green new deal and nationalisation of energy and water, essential to producing national wealth. Two-thirds of the public support a green new deal and over 78% favour pubic ownership of utilities.
• Health and social care made cost-effective by being nationally owned and operated. Social care in particular saw local authority spending fall by half between 2010-11 and 2016-7, with poor quality care and low pay rife in the dominant for-profit sector. The Report also calls for an end to NHS outsourcing, private provision and subsidies. These ideas, along with the reintegration of social care into the NHS are also overwhelmingly popular.
• Early years and educational investments which are critical to reducing pressure on the criminal justice system and increasing productivity to support the transition to a new economy. Beyond funding, the authors also emphasise  a balanced curriculum, democratically accountable structures and a level playing field in Higher Education, pointing towards free provision for all.
• A national building programme to tackle the housing crisis – overwhelmingly popular – while gradually removing the state-led transfer of wealth to private landlords and speculators. Ending Right to Buy is central to this, and it should be noted that in Scotland and Walkes where this policy has been introduced, there has been no backlash at all.
• Infrastructure transformed through targeted, regional control of transport. Three-quarters of voters favour this policy.
• Democratic reforms to control lobbying and corruption. These included a fairer electoral system and a second chamber that would represent the nations and regions of the UK.
• An expansive programme of change through wealth, carbon and corporation taxes, increasing the tax base, yield and productivity sufficiently to carry through the programme outlined.

The authors believe the scale of the problems the UK faces requires a response which matches the ambition of the 1942 Beveridge Report. This tackled the five evils of idleness – through a programme of full employment; ignorance – by universal, free, compulsory secondary education; disease – through the establishment of the NHS; squalor – by a massive council housebuilding programme; and want – by a comprehensive benefits system.

Today all these achievements are undermined by the deliberate return of mass unemployment, the underfunding of schools and increasing costs of higher education, the relentless part-privatisation of the NHS, the selling off of public housing and swingeing benefit cuts.

To challenge this, the Report envisages a changed role for the state as a representative of the people rather than the interests of capital and a new emphasis on equality and community wealth building.

Greater equality is central to this endeavour, as recent studies reviewed on Labour Hub repeatedly underline. The Report states: “All of the ways in which children in the UK are worse off than children in other rich countries are strongly associated with the high level of income inequality in the UK.”

To address the scale of Britain’s economic decline, something which the Labour manifesto palpably fails to do, the authors propose a new economic approach on a fully costed and funded basis. At the heart of these reforms are a new National Investment Bank, a fairer tax system including a wealth tax and a combination of Basic Income and Universal Basic Services.

Will the Labour front bench listen to any of this? Probably not voluntarily. But the evident impatience of voters for drastic change stands in stark contrast with the timidity of Keir Starmer’s team, so any honeymoon an incoming Labour government hopes to enjoy is likely to be very short. As the leadership’s remedies to tackle the climate, cost of living and public services crises fall short of what’s necessary, the ideas in this Report can form a basis for united campaigning by trade unions and other social movements seeking real solutions to the mess we are in.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.

 UK

UNISON passes motion to recognise Palestine as a state

27th June 2024ILeave a Commenton UNISON passes motion to recognise Palestine as a state

“We continue to call for a ceasefire, for the release of all hostages, and for the release of thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, often on trumped-up charges that render them political prisoners.”

Tony Slaven, UNISON Scotland

Impassioned debate on Palestine sees delegates pass a substantive motion at this year’s UNISON conference.

The third day of UNISON’s national delegate conference, chaired by UNISON president Libby Nolan, saw delegates pass a composite motion in solidarity with Palestine – but not before several impassioned speeches were heard.

The debate came shortly after Palestinian ambassador to the UK Dr Hussam Zomlot’s speech to the union.

Introducing the motion on behalf of UNISON Scotland, Tony Slaven said: “After the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, a ceasefire is needed urgently.

“We continue to call for a ceasefire, for the release of all hostages, and for the release of thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, often on trumped-up charges that render them political prisoners.”

He urged conference delegates to vote for the motion, which calls on the UK government to recognise Palestine as a state, to refuse to continue to supply arms to Israel and to support “a peace process that will outlive the politicians of today.”

Speaking in support of the motion, the chair of the NEC’s international committee Liz Wheatley said: “None of us will ever forget the sights and sounds coming out of Rafah. The sights of burning tents in a refugee camp where hundreds of thousands of people had been forced to flee as their homes across Gaza were destroyed.

“They were not displaced, they were driven there by a brutal bombing campaign that has seen over 37,000 killed, 85,000 injured and more than a million facing famine.”

Ms Wheatley’s speech focused on the second demand of the motion – to call on the UK government to suspend arms sales to Israel.

“Sunak and the Tories don’t care about that poor man holding up the headless body of his child, Ahmad Al-Najar; they don’t care about people burned to death in tents. They don’t care there are no hospitals to treat them, that people are starving because aid isn’t allowed in, because food and clean water is scarce. All they care about are their friends in the arms industry, who make a profit out of death.

“As a public-sector worker, I know that every penny, every pound that the government spends on death and destruction is a penny and a pound that could be spent on our hospitals, schools and our public services.”

Yvonne Green, speaking in support of the motion on behalf of Croydon local government branch, drew attention to the sixth part of the motion, affirming UNISON’s support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which she described as “a peaceful method to pressure Israel to uphold international law”.

In a similar vein, Glen Williams from the North West region urged local government workers to take action on pension funds. “Local government pension funds invest £4.5billion in companies complicit in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”

Work on pensions is ongoing, having begun in 2015.

Delegates also spoke of the atrocities of 7 October, while the composite motion itself stated that “the horrific violations of international law committed by the Israeli government, Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank must be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice”.

The motion was passed by a majority vote.

The motion calls on UNISON’s national executive council to:

1)  Campaign for an immediate and permanent ceasefire; an end to the siege of Gaza including the full restoration of water, electricity and communications; immediate access to comprehensive humanitarian aid including food, water and medicines; and the safe release of both Israeli hostages, and Palestinians wrongfully held in Israeli prisons, including under administrative detention.

2)  Call on the UK government to take measures to uphold international law, including suspending the arms trade with Israel, banning trade with the illegal settlements and supporting the prosecution of violations of international law by the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.

3)  Call on the UK government to recognise Palestine as a sovereign, independent state, put pressure on the UN to recognise Palestine as a full member state and implement credible measures and call for renewed talks to facilitate an internationally supported, just political solution, in line with successive UN resolutions, which provides for a viable, contiguous Palestinian state, alongside Israel;

4)  Work with Labour Link to secure a commitment from the next Labour government to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

5)  Encourage branches to support the work of Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Red Cross to support the right to health, and make a further donation to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

6)  Continue to oppose the UK government’s Economic Activities of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill and other attempts to restrict BDS, and continue to use targeted BDS to apply pressure to the Israeli government to end the occupation, respect the rights of Palestinians and bring about peace, including promoting UNISON’s campaign to divest from Local Government Pension Schemes to branches and regions.

7)  Continue providing practical solidarity in support of the rights to decent work and quality public services, including through work with trade unions and Palestinian and Israeli human rights and workers organisations;

8)  Encourage branches and members organising around Palestine in their workplaces and encourage them to mobilise for national and local peaceful protests.

9)  Promote educational initiatives within UNISON branches to raise awareness about the history and complexities of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

10)  Continue to support the work of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and encourage regions and branches to affiliate.

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• This article ws originally published on the UNISON website on 21 June 2024.

 

Justice for the Palestinian people is justice for all

27th June 2024Leave a Commenton Justice for the Palestinian people is justice for all

“We are not going anywhere. But this should be the last time we allow a mass murder of our people. For that, we must not just recover. We must secure our freedom and with it, a sustainable peace.”

Ambassador Husam Zomlot

Palestinian ambassador Dr Husam Zomlot delivers a message of defiance and hope at UNISON conference

The highlight of this year’s UNISON national delegate conference was a speech from Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom Dr Husam Zomlot (pictured), who was welcomed with a standing ovation.

Thanking the union for its warmth, he began with an acknowledgement of UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea’s recent trip to the West Bank. “I know Christina got a taste of what it means to live under Israel’s military occupation.

“You may think it’s the deadly military operations in Gaza that are the worst part,” he continued. “But since October, Israel has killed over 500 people, including over 100 children, in the occupied West Bank. Of course these killings, along with house demolitions, are part of the rampant settler terrorism that has displaced more than 1,000 people from their homes and villages in the last eight months.”

Dr Zomlot described life for Palestinians in the West Bank as “the constant denial of one’s humanity and dignity. The constant fear of arbitrary killings and detention, of roadblocks and checkpoints and never knowing if you can get to work or if your children can get to school. Never being able to plan a day, month or year because the Israeli military pays no attention to your rights of life. Constant daily humiliation is what military occupation is really about.

“But we, the Palestinian people, are hard to break.”

He went on to detail the history of trade union solidarity with Palestine. “Forty-four years ago, it was trade unions in Dundee that forged the first ever twinning agreement between a Palestinian city and a UK one. Dundee was twinned with Nablus. Union to union, solidarity has only been strengthened over these decades and we share values of justice for all.

“UNISON was one of the first unions to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and long demanded that international law be applied to Palestine. That is not a gift or favour, but a right. Our rights are our rights, and we have been denied these rights for 76 years.”

Dr Zomlot praised UNISON’s work over the years to support Palestinian rights. “I know how dedicated you were in opposing the government’s boycott ban, a very clear attempt to interfere with British democracy and to shield Israeli settlements from accountability. 

“UNISON over the years has worked closely with Palestinian NGOs, trade unions and human rights organisations. UNISON works for Medical Aid for Palestinians in the UK, with the Red Cross, with Defense for Children, to boost emergency appeals.

“UNISON works with the global and European trade union movement to build support for Palestine. Your efforts to ensure accountability, to spread solidarity and stand with justice and the Palestinian people are working. Your efforts are working.”

Dr Zomlot then went on to describe the difference between working people in the UK and successive governments that have refused to recognise Palestine as a state.

“We have suffered ethnic cleansing and we are now suffering genocide. Yet we have had successive British governments say they will recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, when it will aid the peace process.

“What peace process? Should we wait for the Israeli military to come to its own senses? Should we wait for colonial Israel to settle in all the territory? Shall we wait for apartheid Israel to force everyone out of Gaza and the West Bank?

“This is a question of international law, resolutions and rights. It is a question of humanity.

“Why should we live a minute longer under Israel’s illegal, immoral and violent occupation? We call on the British government to recognise the state of Palestine immediately and join the 146 countries in the world that have done so.”

The UK’s responsibility to Palestinians

Dr Zomlot turned his focus to Britain’s role in establishing and perpetuating the occupation of Palestine. Referring to the Balfour declaration, a public statement issued in 1917 by the British government that declared Palestine should become ‘a national home for Jewish people’, Dr Zumlot said, “Britain, in 1917, directly contributed to our agony. Britain promised our land without any consultation with the native population that had lived there for millenia.”

He called for the UK to recognise Palestine as a state and expressed his dismay at the UK’s abstention on a 2012 UN general assembly vote that saw the majority of the world vote recognise a Palestinian state.

“This isn’t about Palestinian people. This is about the United Kingdom’s historical role and moral, legal and political responsibility. But whether the United Kingdom will recognise the state of Palestine or not, Palestine will be free. Palestine will be independent. We will be sovereign. So it’s better for the UK to do the right thing, not to drag its feet, and recognise our right to return and equality.”

Gaza: famine, destruction and mass killings

Dr Zomlot gave a grim overview of the current situation in Gaza, where over 50% of all buildings have been destroyed along with 70% of homes, 80% of schools and all universities. 

“Just four of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are only partially operating. Factories, industries, ministries, libraries, mosques, churches, bakeries and Gaza’s central archive containing over 150 years of historical documents all died. The destruction has been total and the killings have been unconscionable: over 37,000 dead and the majority are women and children, with thousands more buried under rubble and thousands more projected to die from famine and disease.”

“Are we no longer shocked that Israel has imposed a famine on 2.3 million people? Have we normalised industrial scale killings? Have we normalised mass destruction?”

Hope

However, he also spoke of the hope that Palestinians have. “There is hope in the incredible resilience and heroism of our people in Gaza. And the people like the Palestinian trainee lawyer, Noor Nassar, who has started a mobile school to provide some education to the 625,000 school age children who have received no education at all this year.”

“There is hope in our people returning to pray for Eid at the historic Omari mosque in Gaza City.

“There is hope in our courageous and brave doctors and nurses who, despite the threat of being targeted, killed, kidnapped; despite the threat of detention and torture, and despite the lack of electricity, fuel and medicine, continue to perform medical miracles. Over 300 doctors and nurses have been abducted, and at least two doctors have been killed in detention.”

Dr Zomlot said he was not surprised that the Israeli military had targeted the medical and education sectors. “One is necessary for life, and one is necessary for a better future. When you target health and education, you target a people’s means of survival. The Palestinian people are an educated people. Education has been our foremost means of resistance. Palestinians have some of the highest literacy rates and highest per capita PhD rates in the world.”

Dr Zomlot defiantly said, “We are not going anywhere. We have recovered before and we will recover again. But this time must be the last time that we see our children being slain in mass killings; the last time to see our mothers murdered, our homes destroyed, our schools bombed. This should be the last time we allow a mass murder of our people. For that, we must not just recover. We must secure our freedom and with it, a sustainable peace.

“I see hope in the International Court of Justice, which has officially put Israel on trial for genocide following South Africa’s case against Israel. I see hope in the International Criminal Court, who have levelled charges of war crimes against senior Israeli leaders for the first time in history. We’re waiting for the arrest warrants to be issued by the end of this week.

“We see hope in the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, putting Israel on a blacklist of countries for its harsh treatment of children.

“The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said Israel is one of the most criminal armies in the world.” 

He also said he found hope in the mass demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, particularly in the student movement in the US and UK. “They call them students but I think we should call them teachers: teachers of humanity.

“History tells us that if you have the student movement and the labour movement, then you’re in the right direction; it’s those two movements that always press for change and always succeed.

“I truly believe that the eyes of the world will not be diverted any longer. Once you have seen what is happening, you cannot unsee this. You will not forget. We will not forget.”

“There has to be equality for every Palestinian wherever they live; and non-Palestinian for that matter. I assure you, the Palestinian people are ready and able.”

‘Justice for the Palestinian people is justice for all’

Dr Zomlot closed his speech in honour of the memories of the dead children who have featured in shocking footage witnessed by millions around the world: “Sidra, the girl whose body was left dangling from a wall. She was my wife’s cousin.

“Hind Rajab, the six-year-old who was left alone calling for help. Ahmed Al-Najar, the 18-month old beheaded baby.

“We must not waver in our efforts to ensure a future for those they left behind. This is how we honour the slain children of Gaza and innocent people all over the world.

“Justice for the Palestinian people is justice for all. Thank you for your solidarity.”

Dr Zomlot’s speech was met with a standing ovation from conference delegates, who joined for a group photo with ‘ceasefire now’ placards’.

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• This article originally appeared on the UNISON website on 21 June 2024