Could Keir Starmer's immigration rhetoric signal the reshaping of left-wing politics? asks Andrew Marr

13 May 2025, 17:16

By Andrew Marr

@AndrewMarr9

There’s a Sherlock Holmes story which hinges on the curious case of a dog that doesn’t bark in the night.

You could say something similar about the once mighty, once militant left of the Labour Party.

In a week when Keir Starmer unveiled a tough new immigration policy, using words which to some seemed to mimic Enoch Powell, you would have thought there could be no greater provocation.

But… not much barking. Zarah Sultana, the Coventry MP and former chair of the socialist campaign group, accused the Prime Minister of mimicking Enoch Powell and fuelling the far right, posting on social media that his words were sickening and a disgrace: “shame on you, Keir Starmer.”

But she is one of three MPs alongside the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Apsana Begum, who remained outside the labour whip after an early rebellion.

Other MPs and Labour figures, including the London mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan on LBC earlier today, have made their disquiet felt but much less aggressively. After the ruthlessly efficient candidate selection at the general election and the discipline still imposed by Downing Street, it looks as if Starmer is a long way away from being threatened by left-wing revolt in the old style.

Electorally, the Greens have not properly emerged as a serious threat to Labour; nor are there visible, or well organised groups on the hard left for labour MPs to worry about.

At some point, just because of the normal physics of democratic politics, this is bound to change. Perhaps the first sign of a realignment came this week in a slew of manila envelopes left in the parliamentary press gallery, hopefully explaining to journalists how they should hold the prime minister to account for the Gaza “genocide”.

It was published by the “Independent Alliance” of four MPs elected last summer on pro-Palestinian tickets - Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan, Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam - and the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. With other Labour MPs, notably the Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, facing formidable Muslim revolts, this could be the first sign of a reshaped left politics?

It’s certainly worth watching.