Labour’s moral superiority problem

Keir Starmer has been described as a ‘moral leftwinger’. He certainly liberally peppered his leadership campaign launch speech with references to Labour’s ethical correctness, describing his campaign as a ‘moral fight against poverty, inequality and injustice’. It is understandable why Starmer praised Labour members’ collective moral superiority: he needs their votes. In doing so, Starmer is following in a time-honoured tradition of flattering party members. But there are pitfalls with this pandering approach, as Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership shows.

It was way back in 1962 that Harold Wilson told Labour’s annual conference:

‘This party is a moral crusade or it is nothing’.

It was a line that proved so popular with party gatherings Wilson repeated it on numerous other occasions. Back then, Wilson spoke to a party that, as today, had been out of office for over a decade. Yet despite having lost three general elections in a row, he still claimed Labour sought more than a Commons majority: it wanted voters to give the party a ‘socialist mandate’ so it could pursue its ultimate ambition: ‘social justice’.