Skip to main content
Despite Starmer’s efforts, Labour will always have a left
The pressures capital itself creates in society leads to the pressure for radical change, says KEITH FLETT
Keir Hardie (centre) addresses a crowd in Trafalgar Square

THE efforts of Labour Party HQ to remove the left from the party are perpetual. 

Arguably the first occasion was the formal refusal to recognise the young Communist Party as an affiliate in the late 1920s. 

The most recent purges have included Socialist Appeal and various groups opposed to the expulsion of critics of the current leadership.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
LONG DARK SHADOW: John Henry Whitley chaired, from 1917, a committee to report on ‘the Relations of Employers and Employees’ in the wake of the establishment of the Shop Stewards Movement. Photo:  Public domain
Features / 6 December 2025
6 December 2025

In the final part of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explains how in 2018, after years spent rebuilding the PCS into a leading force against austerity, a damaging rupture emerged from within the union’s own left wing

PROTEST PIONEERS: The assault of the Chartists on the Westgate Hotel, where some of their comrades were held prisoner, Newport, 1839
Features / 24 October 2025
24 October 2025

It’s not just the Starmer regime: the workers of Britain have always faced legal affronts on their right to assemble and dissent, and the Labour Party especially has meddled with our freedoms from its earliest days, writes KEITH FLETT

A ballot box arriving during the count for the Blackpool South by-election at Blackpool Sports Centre, Blackpool, May 2, 2024
Features / 11 September 2025
11 September 2025

Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT

Jeremy Corbyn (second left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South (second right) on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022
Features / 20 August 2025
20 August 2025

Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY