So far Keir Starmer has managed to avoid a research group per se – but the number of caucuses and pressure groups of Labour MPs is ratcheting up and fast. A sign of the changing attitudes in the Parliamentary Labour Party can be found in the arrival of various groupings from the “Red Wall” group to a new Blue Labour outfit. Not all are intended to be helpful.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with Labour MPs after the 2024 general election in London last July (Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)
For Starmer’s team, it was a lesson in what not to do. So, candidate selection became a key plank of his team’s plan to show the Labour Party has changed. New vetting procedures were brought in to stop troublesome candidates – both in terms of behaviour and politics. The desired candidates were largely centrist or coming from the professions.
The new intake may have been assumed to be identikit MPs who would loyally follow Starmer’s orders. But No 10 are fast discovering that even a landslide victory does not secure long-lasting loyalty. Boris Johnson had a similar discovery after the 2019 Tory election win – his Red Wall MPs soon moved from seeing him as the answer to the problem as the party fell back in the polls.
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Read More“It’s strange, the so-called Starmtroopers don’t have a personal loyalty to Keir,” says a Labour aide. “They don’t see him as being key to their victory.”
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that four of the Labour MPs suspended for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap have had the whip restored – including former shadow Corbynite ministers – Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long-Bailey. “They want to show there is a way back for good behaviour,” says one MP.
But while the growth group is fairly supportive, other groupings highlight the tensions in the party. The Red Wall group of around 40 MPs in Red Wall seats this week requested a meeting with the Prime Minister. They want to see a strong line on immigration and more investment. The group’s leader is Jo White, the MP for Bassetlaw. He has made critical noises about the party’s messaging on immigration: “We are not telling a strong story about what we are achieving.”
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Read MoreThen there’s the Blue Labour group – which includes Dan Carden, the MP for Liverpool Walton, formerly a member of the socialist Campaign Group, which had gone out of vogue in recent years. This new caucus wants to push for a socially conservative but economically left-wing approach. Carden has said “progressive politics” has “threatened communities”. The initial handling of the grooming gangs scandal has been a cause of criticism among some of these MPs.
If that comes to pass, Starmer shouldn’t rely on his Starmtroopers to go out and loyally hold the line. Instead, he may find the opposite – an army of Labour MPs ready to turn their fire on him.
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