The Labour left are purging themselves

Ever since Keir Starmer was elected leader in April a phoney peace has prevailed in the Labour party. While it looked inevitable to most outsiders, the ease with which Starmer beat Rebecca Long-Bailey – the continuity Corbynite candidate in all but name – took many on the left by surprise. Their disorientation only increased as Starmer swiftly removed key Corbyn loyalists from the Shadow Cabinet and Labour headquarters while establishing a majority on the party’s governing National Executive Committee. Most have consequently spent the last few months in a dazed shock.

Starmer’s surprise sacking of Long-Bailey from his front bench last week has seemingly kicked the left back into life. Senior Corbynite and former party chair Ian Lavery excitedly argued the Long-Bailey affair was all about Starmer’s desire to ‘purge’ the left and called on his faction to ‘Organise, Educate and Agitate’ in response.

But is there any way back for the Labour left? Or must they write-off the Jeremy Corbyn years as an unrepeatable, freakish accident, when somehow Labour managed to elect its most radical leader ever, who came close to winning office in 2017 by mobilising (as they would see it) hope against fear and in 2019 presented a manifesto which promised a truly socialist transformation of Britain – but which found little favour with voters.