Labour purges are nothing new

Sir Keir Starmer’s determination to prove to voters that Labour has changed, by purging the party’s far left, may look like cruel contemporary opportunism to his opponents. However, it actually fits a pattern that has recurred throughout the party’s history.

Ever since Labour’s foundation in 1900, the party has been an uneasy coalition between a minority of mainly middle-class Marxist intellectuals, and the less ideological working-class masses in the trade union movement. Repeatedly during the 20th century, the hard left infiltrated and attempted to take over the party – but just as often they were purged and expelled by the Labour right as a result.

The chief excuse for purges was once the left’s sympathy for communism and the Soviet Union, whereas today it is their alleged anti-Semitism, associated with the existence of the state of Israel and latterly the Gaza war.

Sometimes the purges have reached the very top of the party’s leadership.