AFTER 47 years’ continuous membership of the Labour Party, I left in 2023 and now find myself, like many Morning Star readers, in a quandary: for the first time in my life, I’ve no idea who I’ll vote for at the next general election.

Plenty of people are offering answers to this question. But I’ve come to think that maybe, for once, we have too many answers and not enough questions. So I’ve been jotting down a few of the latter as they dance around my own confused head. Let me stress this: I don’t have the answers — and I’m not sure I believe anyone who says they have — but I have got some questions, which I hope might help.

For the first time ever it’s possible that an incoming Labour regime will be objectively to the right of the outgoing Conservative one. Does this invalidate the traditional doorstep argument that “the worst Labour government is better than the best Tory government”? Or is that principle less to do with policy, more to do with class orientation? Does the formal link between the unions and Labour mean that even a hostile Labour government puts organised workers closer to power?

Is it possible that popular pressure will force the new government to move to the centre, or even to the left? If not, then do we care who wins? Or should socialists simply say: “We haven’t got a horse in this race,” and do something useful instead? When electoral turnout is falling, why are we still obsessed with polling booths? Or does ignoring electoral politics risk abandoning the field to ultra-reactionary forces?

Would a historic defeat for the Conservative Party, potentially shattering it into warring factions, automatically constitute a serious setback for capital? If so, should our priority at this election be the destruction of Toryism in its current form? Or is capital now ready to move on from a no longer viable Tory Party, and happy to have its interest served instead by a wholly captured Labour Party?

If we’re all agreed that there is no prospect of a social democratic government winning this general election, is our main concern that the following election should result in a social democrat (or better) government? Or is our priority limiting the damage in this election?

Would voting en bloc for an existing centre party (eg, the Greens) chasten Labour’s rightwingers? Or merely spite a union-based party while bolstering one with no such roots?

Could an avowedly socialist party, already existing or newly created, make a useful intervention in this election? What would be its aim: to form a government? An opposition? To galvanise and organise left activists? To create a small socialist group in the Commons, which could keep the flame alive and/or form the nucleus of a new party of labour? Would such an undertaking be worth the enormous expenditure of time, energy and money involved, or could those resources be better used campaigning on Gaza or the NHS?

Just because a left-of-Labour electoral challenge has never succeeded in Britain, does that necessarily mean that it never will, given the unique circumstances of the hour? If we gamble on the possibility that it could, what happens if we lose the bet? How would a new left party avoid splitting at birth over bitterly divisive matters such as Brexit or identity politics?

Political pundits believe that Reform UK’s popularity will cost the Tories seats (assuming no deal between the two parties). However, because there’s no nationally organised left equivalent to Reform, it’s hard for opinion polls to register what effect left candidates will have on Labour. 

Assuming almost every constituency will have a left-of-Labour candidate of some sort, will some of these take just enough votes to prevent Labour victories? If so, is this a good thing, because it puts pressure on Labour, or a bad thing, because it results in more Tory MPs keeping their seats?

Do we believe that high-profile individuals (such as expelled Labour MPs) and members of local groups (such as councillors who’ve resigned from Labour) can be successful candidates, either separately or in some form of coalition? What does “successful” mean?

Is our overriding objective in this election to prevent the appalling Starmer becoming prime minister, even at the disastrous cost of the Tories retaining power? Or to prevent the re-election of the worst government in British history, even at the disastrous cost of putting Starmer in office? If it’s neither of the above, what is it?

And: what do our enemies hope we’ll do?

Perhaps all the above could be summarised in just two questions: what do we actually want from this election, and what do we think we can realistically get from this election? Only then might we move on to the eternal question — what is to be done?