After an electoral blow, Keir Starmer vowed hope while Labour factions debate what should actually change, including union demands and strategy.
A serving minister said: “I want to see more emotion, and less technician.. This is partly about better presentation.. We should be offering more for the strivers, the ‘play by the rules’ families and the pro-Europeans.. North Sea oil extraction and British common sense.” Even Starmer’s most ardent left-wing critics have called for the policies, not the leader, to change.. Veteran MPs Diane Abbott and John McDonnell, both allies of the former left-wing leader Jeremy
Corbyn, said there should be a deeper discussion.. And there will be a similar conversation about what to demand from Labour among the 11 unions formally affiliated to the party, whose general secretaries were due to meet virtually at 5 p.m.. Friday.. Sharon Graham, the left-wing head of the Unite union, stopped short of calling for Starmer to quit, but said the results could mark “the beginning of the end for the party itself.” Andrea
Egan, the left-wing leader of UNISON, added: “What must change is not just the leader but the entire approach: only a Labour government which always puts the interests of workers before the wealthy can succeed.” But the unions can’t agree either.. While some launched an all-out attack, others want to continue pressing their advantage with Labour.. The body of 11 unions, abbreviated to TULO, is chaired by Joanne Thomas of the Starmer-friendly shopworkers’ union USDAW..
She “runs a tight ship,” said one ally.. Starmer still has his die-hard allies, but such is the churn in government that some of them are relegated to presenting their vision privately.