Sir Kier Starmer: Beginning The Purge ?

Last Thursday the new Labour leader, Sir Kier Starmer, sacked his shadow education secretary  Rebecca Long-Bailey. Long Bailey, who Sir Kier beat to the leadership earlier this year, retweeted an article which Sir Kier claimed to have contained an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.  The article in question was from an interview of actress and activist Maxine Peake with the Independent.  Peake had suggested that the tactics used by American police in the killing of George Floyd in May - applying pressure to the neck with a knee - originated from training by the Israeli secret service.  Peake later retracted that comment.  Long-Bailey herself followed up her retweet with a clarification that she did not endorse all aspects of the article.  Yet, she was still removed from the shadow cabinet after refusing to delete both tweets.

Sir Kier had made it a central issue of both his leadership campaign, and his acceptance speech after being elected as Labour leader, that stamping out anti-semitism, and in turn rebuilding the trust of the Jewish community, was an absolute priority for him.  As a result, many within Labour have praised him on his strong, decisive leadership in sacking Long-Bailey, and seemingly showing a zero tolerance attitude to anti-Semitism.

The issue of anti-semitism is one that has plagued the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.  There were numerous claims that the leadership during the Corbyn years turned a blind eye to anti-Semitic comments from MPs, councillors, and Labour members.  Though Corbyn frequently publicly decried anti-semitism, he was often considered to have failed to effectively deal with the issue.  The Labour Party are still under investigation from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, despite the party’s own investigation.

It is somewhat unsurprising therefore that Sir Kier has acted quickly and decisively.  He has made it his mission to transform the party’s image on anti-semitism, and the sacking of a key shadow cabinet member has sent a big message on how he will deal with issues of anti-semitism in the future.  But is this just about anti-semitism ?

The fact of the matter is that the article in question made only the smallest of references to the Israeli secret service, and its role in training US police in the method that killed George Floyd.  Moreover, Sir Kier would not accept that Long-Bailey clarified her position in a following tweet, telling Long-Bailey that his mind had already been made up.

So the chances are this is political too…

Starmer comfortably defeated Long-Bailey in the leadership race to replace Mr Corbyn, yet the faction she represents remain a force within the party.  Long-Bailey had positioned herself as the continuation candidate to the Corbyn/McDonnell leadership that came before.  Much like how Corbyn stated after the humiliating results of the December election that he had ‘won the argument’, Long-Bailey was insistent that the brutal defeat Labour experienced only a few months ago was to be blamed on anything, except the socialist policies of the Labour manifesto.  Sir Kier, conversely, positioned himself as a more moderate option.  Throughout the campaign he asserted that he was the unifying candidate.  He claimed he would bring together the party, make them more electable, whilst retaining many of the socialist policies of the Corbyn/McDonnell manifesto.  The early indications is that he only wants to succeed in one of those ambitions.

Sir Kier likely has four years to put Labour in a position to win the next election. Some of his early decisions, including his shadow cabinet selections, suggest he is trying to move Labour back towards the centre of British politics.  It was Labour under Blair, of course, that comfortably won three elections.  The speed at which he removed Long-Bailey, for what was a minor blunder, could be indicative of his approach towards the socialist left of the party.  Her retweet gave him the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: showing leadership and a no nonsense approach to anti-semitism in the party, while purging his front bench of a key ally of the socialist wing of the party.  Yet, this may cause more trouble than it’s worth.

Under the Corbyn leadership, various centrist politicians within the Labour Party were either deselected, or simply left the party.  Despite this, and filling his front bench with ideological allies, Corbyn always struggled to retain the confidence of backbench MPs who disagreed with him on principle.  As such, throughout his time as leader of the opposition, Corbyn struggled to retain any sense of unity within Labour.  Sir Kier may face the same problem, albeit to a lesser extent.

Several of the new, up and coming Labour MPs were selected under the previous Labour leadership.  These young MPs, such as Sam Tarry, Zarah Sultana, Bell Ribiero-Addy and Nadia Whittome, are all unapologetic Corbyn supporters, and part of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs within the Labour Party.  That faction makes up 35 of Labour’s 202 Parliamentary members. The Campaign Group spoke to Sir Kier after Long-Bailey’s sacking requesting that she be reinstated to her position, while Momentum chief Jon Lansman called Sir Kier ‘reckless’ for his removal of the former shadow education secretary, and warned that the new leader had made it more difficult to retain party unity.

Sir Kier’s actions last week may suggest that he is not going to prioritise pandering to those on the left of the party.  Instead, he may want to purge his front bench of those on the left of Labour, and reduce their influence.  After five relatively unsuccessful years as the party’s leading force, the socialist faction of the party may be forced back to the sidelines of British politics, as Sir Kier sets his sights on winning the next election.  By the time the next election does come around, it will have been nearly twenty years since Labour won their last general election.

Despite a yearning to move Labour away from the left it has occupied for the last half decade, Sir Kier is aware he needs to act cautiously.  Momentum still hold a huge amount of influence within the Labour movement, and an overly aggressive attempt to remove them from positions of influence could create a bitter war within the party.  So don’t expect Sir Kier to rid his frontbench of those who were sympathetic to Corbyn with any great urgency.  Instead, he will likely take a slower, more strategic approach, removing people only when he sees a good opportunity.  Rebecca Long-Bailey gave Sir Kier the chance to frame her sacking as a sign of his leadership over anti-semitism.  It's not quite the Night of the Long Knives yet, but Labour's left will need to be on their guard.