Sir Kid Starver declares war on the working class

Last week, Labour leader Keir Starmer scandalously suspended seven MPs for voting against his government’s austerity policies. This harsh move underlines the capitalist interests that Britain’s new PM represents. The left must prepare for battle.

[Originally published at communist.red]

Keir Starmer laid down a marker in Westminster last night, and sent a clear message to the working class and the capitalists alike: his Labour Party is no home for left-wingers, and no representative of workers and youth.

In a parliamentary vote relating to the government’s legislative programme, as outlined in the King’s Speech, seven Labour MPs supported a SNP amendment calling for the abolition of the two-child benefit cap.

In the end, the SNP motion was defeated by 363 votes to 103, demonstrating Starmer’s large majority in the House of Commons.

There was no need for Starmer to whip the vote. Nevertheless, the seven Labour rebels – including left-wing backbenchers like John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Apsana Begum, and Zarah Sultana – were all unceremoniously suspended from the parliamentary party for their open opposition.

The purpose of this punishment is unambiguous: to tell the Labour ranks that dissent will not be tolerated; and to reassure the ruling class that Sir Kid Starver is their loyal servant, willing to go to any lengths to defend the interests of the bosses and bankers.

Dickensian conditions

The controversial cap in question was introduced by the Tories in 2017. This cruel measure denies impoverished families additional child-related welfare payments if they have more than two children. It is estimated to affect 1.6 million across Britain.

Data released by the government earlier this year suggested that 4.3 million children in the UK – nearly one-third – are living in relative poverty. 3.6 million children (one quarter) are living in absolute poverty.

This is a damning indictment of British capitalism, and of the brutal austerity agenda that the Tories pursued during their 14 years in power.

Now, with yesterday’s events, Starmer has signalled that he fully intends on upholding the Tories’ draconian, Dickensian legacy.

Warfare vs welfare

Starmer has signalled that he fully intends on upholding the Tories’ draconian, Dickensian legacy / Image: Number 10, Flickr

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economic think-tank, removing the two-child cap would lift around 500,000 children out of relative poverty, at a cost of £3.4 billion per year.

Yet the Labour leaders have asserted that, in their pursuit of ‘fiscal responsibility’, they cannot sign-up to any such ‘uncosted’ policies.

Such concerns don’t seem to apply when it’s a question of warfare, not welfare, however.

Since gaining the keys to Number 10, Starmer has promised billions for bloodshed: reaffirming his unwavering support for NATO and Trident; committing to raising UK ‘defence’ spending to 2.5 percent of GDP; and pledging an extra £3bn per year in military aid to Ukraine – almost the exact amount needed to scrap the two-child benefit cap!

This shows where the Labour leaders’ loyalties and priorities lie: not with ending child poverty or tackling the cost-of-living crisis, but to the imperialists, capitalists, and merchants of death.

No surprises

According to Guardian reporters, Starmer’s suspension of the defiant seven has “sent shockwaves through the party”, with “multiple MPs” said to have been “taken aback by the whipping operation”.

“This does not breed a healthy culture,” suggested Nadia Whittome, one of a number of Labour MPs who spoke in favour of abolishing the cap, but who did not vote for the SNP amendment.

Starmer’s latest ‘shock’ move should come as no surprise, however. Since day one, he has made his intentions clear: to represent the interests of the multi-millionaires, not the millions; and, in turn, to purge the Labour Party of any trace of socialism or Corbynism.

Left-wingers, including Jeremy Corbyn himself, have been hounded out of the party. Tory defectors, meanwhile, have been welcomed with open arms. And every vaguely progressive promise has been broken, as Starmer follows the diktats of big business.

The decision to remove the whip from these mutinous MPs is the obvious conclusion to this sorry story – one that the ‘left’ should have been fully expecting and prepared for.

‘For unity’

Commenting on her decision not to support the SNP motion, despite opposing the two-child cap in words, so-called ‘left’ Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said that she was voting with the government “for unity”.

But this naivety and softness has precisely been the problem with the Labour ‘lefts’ from the start.

From the minute Corbyn became Labour leader, it was evident that the right wing was out for blood. They wanted nothing less than his head on a stick, as they ruthlessly sought to regain control of the party, on behalf of the capitalist establishment.

All the while, however, the ‘left’ leaders called for ‘unity’: appealing for the Blairite backstabbers to respect the Labour Party as a ‘broad church’; and offering endless olive branches to those who sought to crush them.

The Corbyn leadership had plenty of opportunities to drive out these saboteurs. But unlike Starmer and the right wing, who have systematically eliminated their opponents, they bent over backwards to accommodate their critics – attempting to include them in the shadow cabinet, accepting their trumped-up accusations, and retreating in the face of every confrontation.

Truth be told, the current situation, with the handful of remaining left-leaning Labour MPs now exiled as independents, is the culmination of these mistakes.

Compromise and collaboration

At root, these problems are a product of the woolly, reformist outlook of these ‘lefts’.

Rather than seeing things politically, in class terms, these prominent ‘lefts’ couch everything in moralistic language – appealing to the conscience of the capitalists and their representatives; asking them to be ‘nicer’ and ‘kinder’, and grant the working class a few extra scraps from the rich-man’s table.

Responding to news of her suspension, for example, Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana suggested that she was the victim of a “macho virility test” on the part of Starmer.

But the PM’s push for austerity has nothing to do with ‘macho’ chest-beating, and everything to do with the needs of British capitalism.

Notably, the ‘Socialist Campaign Group’ of Labour MPs was even split over this question. Nine of the faction’s members voted with the government, and six abstained over whether to scrap the cap. This shows the utter spinelessness of some of these self-proclaimed ‘lefts’.

Across the board, meanwhile, the trade union leaders have wasted precious time and effort in recent months sowing illusions in Starmer and his programme: placing all their hopes in the prospect of a Labour government saving steel jobs in Port Talbot; and romanticising the party’s ‘New Deal for Working People’, instead of organising members to fight back against the employers’ onslaught.

Rather than strengthening and preparing the movement for the coming disputes over pay and jobs, the union leaders have made it clear that they will accept mere crumbs, as they desperately attempt not to rock the boat.

We must be honest: Down this path of class collaboration and compromise lies certain demoralisation, disorientation, and defeat.

Prepare for battle

What is required is a genuine revolutionary leadership / Image: The Communist

What is required is a genuine revolutionary leadership – one that is armed with a clear class perspective; with a determined, militant approach, based on mobilisation and struggle; and with a bold socialist programme, aimed at tackling society’s problems at their root: the rotten capitalist system.

That is what we – the Revolutionary Communist Party – are attempting to build.

Across the world, we are living through a period of sharp turns and sudden changes. Explosive events are on the order of the day everywhere, as exemplified by the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the mass movements in Kenya and Bangladesh, and the growing conflagration in the Middle East.

Against this turbulent backdrop, it is clear that there will be no honeymoon for the incoming Labour government. Starmer will preside over a deepening crisis of British capitalism; and, in turn, over a crisis of the regime.

Instead of reforms, this government will be carrying out vicious attacks, cuts, and counter-reforms. In short, Starmer – and the capitalist class who stand behind him – will be waging war on the working class.

This is the real meaning of yesterday’s events. It is time to get organised, join the RCP, and prepare for battle.