1mago 06.50 GMT
Labour ‘failing on every count’ under Starmer, says Unison
leader Andrea Egan in call for party to shift left
Labour’s defeat in Gorton and Denton is likely to reignite calls for Keir
Starmer to be replaced as leader. Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader,
appeared to anticipate this in comments earlier this morning, when she
insisted that Starmer was “the person for the job”. (See 5.31pm.)
But this morning Andrea Egan, the relatively new leftwing general secretary
of Unison, one of the two biggest unions backing Labour, said the party is
“failing on every count” under Starmer. In a statement she said:
44 The Greens won for a simple reason. Many traditional Labour supporters, in
Manchester and across the country, want to see progressive values robustly
defended against the far-right, not gleefully abandoned.
A Labour government should be standing up for workers, defending migrants
and refugees, and taking the fight to Nigel Farage rather than letting him set the
agenda.
Under Keir Starmer the party is failing on every count, leaving the Greens to fill
the vacuum.
Cosying up to the rich and powerful, and protecting their interests whilst
attacking ordinary working people and the left has singularly failed. The prime
minister is now reaping the electoral consequences of that strategy.
If the government wants to survive, it urgently needs to stand up for workers
and defend our fundamental values.
The thing is, nobody really wants the job of Labour Leader right now....
#UKPOL #UKPolitics #Labour #KeirStarmer #Starmer #Unison #AndreaEgan