Labour left vow fight-back after Starmer speech

On the corner of Liverpool's Chinatown, a phalanx of MPs are sat on stage in front of hundreds of supporters, many of them waiting their turn to critique Labour's leader, Sir Keir Starmer.

They're not members of opposing parties, as you might expect.

They're Labour MPs with a message for Sir Keir: the left-wing of the party will not be marginalised.

"When the party we all represent and campaign for every single day turns on its own, and says we don't want socialists in our party anymore, we didn't bow down and cower away, we said we're going to fight," says the Labour MP for Ilford South, Sam Tarry.

"And we're going to fight back."

Hours earlier, in packed conference hall down the road, Sir Keir planted a flag with a different mast in a speech to a wider audience.

"We are the party of the centre-ground," Sir Keir said, to a thundering ovation.

On Tuesday night, following Sir Keir's big speech to Labour conference, those MPs gathered to assert their politics at a Socialist Campaign Group rally.

Founded in 1982 during Margaret Thatcher's premiership, the group has been the home of Labour left MPs for 40 years. Although Mr Corbyn wasn't in attendance, his presence and the legacy of his policies loomed large.

First to speak at The Black-E community centre was Kim Johnson, Liverpool's first black MP.

"I know people, comrades, are very disappointed with our party," she said. "But what I will say is we have to fight from within. We've been there before and we'll get there again. Solidarity to the left."

Since Sir Keir became leader in 2020, he has sought to break with the politics of the Corbyn era.

The Islington North MP was suspended from Labour in 2020 when he suggested the scale of anti-Semitism in the party had been "dramatically overstated" by his opponents.

He was later readmitted to the party after he said concerns about anti-Semitism were neither "exaggerated nor overstated".

But Sir Keir said his predecessor would not be able to return as a Labour MP and would continue to have to sit as an independent.

The row has enraged Mr Corbyn's supporters on Labour's left, including Nadia Whittome.

"To win the next general election our party needs to be united," the Labour MP said. "To the leadership: keep giving us policies that we can get excited about, stop the attacks on the left, and restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn."

Ms Whittome - the UK's youngest MP when she was elected at 23 - did have some positive things to say about Sir Keir's speech though.

And make no mistake, she added, "these announcements are victory for the left".

"To those with power in our party, I want to emphasise one thing: the left are not the enemy, we are the future."

In his speech, John McDonnell chose to focus on the past, namely the policies he put forward when he was Labour's former shadow chancellor.

Sir Keir's speech "was more John McDonnell than Tony Blair", the veteran Labour MP said.

"It demonstrated just what you have done throughout our movement," he said. "By sticking around, you've forced our ideas onto the agenda again, so even the Blairites have to accept it."

Sir Keir's speech did draw on the influence of former Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair - the last leader to win a general election for the party.

At one point, Sir Keir quoted his predecessor, who once described Labour as the "political wing of the British people".

He claimed Labour had been transformed under his leadership into a party that was once again "fit to serve our country".

The process has been bumpy at times, with tensions over party discipline on the issue of joining strikers on the picket line recently.

Left-wing supporters of Mr Tarry say the Labour leader fired him for joining striking rail workers on a picket line. Unions and MPs on Labour's left have backed Mr Tarry.

Speaking on stage at Socialist Campaign Group rally, Mr Tarry said "it can be tough being a socialist".

"We want a government that's a socialist Labour government and don't ever let that flame in your hearts go out," Mr Tarry said. "And I finish with this: never, ever cross a picket line."

At the start of the event, as crowds amassed in the venue, they sang the name of the Labour MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana, to the tune of the White Stripe's metronomic hit, Seven Nation Army.

"Oh, Zarah Sultana," they chanted, a song once sung about Mr Corbyn.

The fight for the Labour Party was a fight for the country, she told the crowd. "That's how serious it is."

"That's why the Labour right do not want the Labour left in the party," she said.

Previously, Sir Keir has warned the Labour Party to end its internal warring to defeat the Tories at the next general election. The mood generally seemed to one of unity at this conference, as the party eyes up a path to power.

But as Labour plots that path, the party's left has warned Sir Keir it will not be easily swept aside.