The Starmtroopers: how Labour’s centrists took back control

On a cloudy Saturday in March, a group of unlikely characters gathered in an office near London’s Old Street for political training. A scientist, a prison officer, an army veteran and four economists were among them and they all hope to be elected as Labour MPs at the next election. A great many of them are expected to succeed. If today’s polls were to become tomorrow’s election result, there would be an influx of more than 200 new Labour MPs, doubling Keir Starmer’s parliamentary contingent to 450. The quality of those politicians will decide the nature of the next Labour government.

They are, very much, Starmer’s people. Since becoming leader, his main focus has been rooting out the Corbynite influence at every level of his party and finding moderates to replace the far left. His plan was to regain control over the apparatus and then focus on fighting the Tories. Jeremy Corbyn himself has been blocked from standing as a Labour candidate at the next election; Diane Abbott could be next. She has lost the party whip and is being investigated over her hastily retracted comments suggesting that Jews do not experience racism. ‘I’d be stunned if she was allowed to stand again,’ says one party aide.

If Starmer wins with a small majority, then much will depend on the coalition he would have to build with his party, which is why he has been so keen to nurture a new model army of backbenchers. His team have made it his business to know the politics of local Labour branches. Tony Blair once said this was his secret to success. ‘You really don’t have to worry about Jeremy Corbyn suddenly taking over,’ he said in 1996. ‘I know everything that’s going on in his constituency party.’