A fresh survey this week suggested Labour has plummeted to fourth place in voter intentions, behind not just the Conservatives and Reform UK, but potentially even the Greens.
Starmer: turbocharging Labour’s demise
Keir Starmer isn’t just floundering, he is actively accelerating the death of the Labour Party, turning what was once a party of workers and social justice into a pale imitation of the Tories with a hint of Reform, all while watching his poll numbers crater and his own MPs eye the exit doors.
For Starmer, falling behind the Greens isn’t just bad, it’s utterly humiliating for a party that won a massive landslide victory a little over a year ago.
This calamitous collapse is a direct result of Starmer’s refusal to fight for bold socialist policies. Instead of tackling rising inequality head-on with targeted wealth taxes, genuine public ownership, or real wage protections, the bought-and-paid-for asset of the terrorist pariah state doubled down on austerity-lite measures that savagely punch down on the working class while unashamedly cosying up to big business.
It’s a classic Blairite triangulation. Shamelessly go searching for the votes of the centre-right, rather than advocate the policies of the left. Completely alienate your traditional voter base. Sit back and watch helplessly while the Greens siphon off progressive voters who are justifiably furious about Labour’s shift to the right.
But this time, there are two huge differences to the Greens of two decades ago.
Meet the new Greens
One, Zack Polanski. He is the most polished, believable Green Party politician in my lifetime. He gets it.
If you’re left-wing and fed up, Polanski — greener, meaner (to the establishment), and a dab hand at brilliantly dismantling the system — is a serious upgrade on the beleaguered anti-socialist prime minister.
Starmer is the emperor, foolishly pretending he is dressed for revolution. Polanski is the comedian, roasting the emperor’s new clothes with very little effort.
Is Polanski perfect? No.
Are you?
We on the left have been absolutely drubbing Starmer since his 2024 landslide win turned into a masterclass in disappointment, with policies that feel like Thatcherism in a red tie, such as keeping the two-child benefit cap and welcoming donors over workers.
Zack Polanski is the right person, in the right place, at the right time, to take this fight to the establishment.
Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m beginning to think Zack Polanski’s new Green Party is looking a whole lot like I would expect the Labour Party to look.
And secondly, a fractured left has pushed thousands of socialists towards the Greens because they really cannot be arsed with these factional divisions that keep us further away from power than ever before.
If I, once laughably described by Buzzfeed as “the woman that leads Corbyn’s Twitter army” can see it, so can anyone else that is looking for a hope train to hop on board during these dark days of poor-hating, refugee-baiting and *checks notes*… roundabout painting.
The left has been screaming out for a figurehead for five years. You can hardly blame them for getting behind a fantastic communicator with a clear vision, such as Mr Polanski.
Meanwhile, in Wales…
Caerphilly — M4 Junction 32, and the cradle of socialist icons like Aneurin Bevan and birthplace of the NHS — has been a Labour stronghold for over 100 years.
The Caerphilly Senedd by-election wasn’t just a win for Plaid Cymru, it was a thunderous repudiation of the stale, out-of-touch status quo that is dogmatically peddled by both Labour and Reform UK.
Farage had already strutted into Caerphilly like some sort of conquering hero. Pass me the fucking sick bucket. The loathsome, wretched skid mark threw everything at a seat where they had scraped just 495 votes in 2021.
Hilariously, Reform limped to second place with just over a third over the vote. This slap-down reveals their apparent insurgent momentum as little more than brittle protest fluff that can be easily dismantled by a grounded progressive campaign that addresses the concerns of the many, and not the few.
Reform boasted of toppling “100 years of Labour rule” and got their arses handed to them on left-wing plate by a 72-year-old local stalwart who has contested THIRTEEN elections since 1983.
Reform’s 2025 gains could well be anti-Labour spasms, not durable ideology, and we have seen how they can be defeated by alliances that emphasise hope over hate and a local ground campaign that gets out the vote.
Labour got a seismic warning in Wales
I’ve no doubt Mr Farage makes fantastic meme material, but governing the UK? Don’t bet on it just yet, because Plaid Cymru and the people of Caerphilly have shown us that nothing in politics is inevitable.
For Labour, Caerphilly wasn’t just a minor blip, it is a seismic warning that Starmer’s austerity-lite, Westminster first Labour is in a whole world of shit, across the entire country.
Just for one moment, imagine being a Labour politician. Yikes.
Now try telling an ordinary person in Caerphilly about the need for fiscal restraint and difficult decisions after fourteen dreadful years of Tory austerity while not-so-subtly sending billions of their pounds to a country with a rampant neo-Nazi problem.
It’s okay. You can stop imagining now, pick yourself up off the floor, pinch the bridge of your nose to stem the flow of blood, and join a genuinely progressive force for good.
Well done to the people of Caerphilly for coming together to stop Reform ringmaster Farage and his Tory-reject clowns — in the words of another famous son of Caerphilly, Tommy Cooper — “just like that”.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.