Scottish Labour's leaders cannot keep blaming Westminster for the collapse at the ballot box, says VINCE MILLS
IN THE early hours of July 5 2024, the scale of Labour’s landslide election victory was clear. The Tories were massacred, returning a mere 121 MPs — their worst-ever result in history. Labour returned to Westminster with a thumping majority on the scale of 1997. Sir Keir Starmer was triumphant and hailed by all and sundry as a political miracle worker.
The story was even more dramatic given the turnaround since 2019. Under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn Labour had crashed to a heavy defeat that year at the hands of Boris Johnson. Comparisons made with the 1931 election, when Labour won only 52 seats following the split in the party and the election of a national government coalition. The 2019 defeat led to Jeremy Corbyn resigning as leader of the party and all the blame was laid at his door.
While the historical parallel was a popular line with the media pundits and right-wing Labour figures at the time it was profoundly misleading.
Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT
While Reform poses as a workers’ party, a credible left alternative rooted in working-class communities would expose their sham — and Corbyn’s stature will be crucial to its appeal, argues CHELLEY RYAN
Starmer struggles to save leadership amid polling calamity
From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT



