Keir Starmer told to ‘start listening’ as Reform makes big local election gains
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/02/keir-starmer-told-to-start-listening-after-reform-makes-local-election-gains
Posted by Still-District-6149
Keir Starmer told to ‘start listening’ as Reform makes big local election gains
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/02/keir-starmer-told-to-start-listening-after-reform-makes-local-election-gains
Posted by Still-District-6149
25 Comments
Be careful though.
No point in defeating reform if you become reform
Hmm, will he listen to the labour supporters he’s pushed away with Tory policies or listen to reform and Tory voters and make things worse. I know which one my money is on.
Turns out when your left wing party stops listening to the working class and listens to liberals instead you lose the working class voters *shocked pikachu face*. They were voted in because they weren’t the tories.
Listening to the Tories is what got them this low result I don’t think listening to Reform is the fix
I can’t see a situation where Farage will not win the next general election, with the trajectory reform is on.
Going to keep posting this Tony Benn quote today:
“If the Labour Party could be bullied or persuaded to denounce its Marxists, the media – having tasted blood – would demand next that it expelled all its Socialists […] to form a harmless alternative to the Conservatives, which could then be allowed to take office now and then when the Conservatives fell out of favour with the public. Thus British Capitalism, it is argued, will be made safe forever, and socialism would be squeezed of the National agenda. **But if such a strategy were to succeed… it would in fact profoundly endanger British society. For it would open up the danger of a swing to the far-right, as we have seen in Europe over the last 50 years.**” –
What do people seriously think labour can do to stop these people voting for reform?
It’s fascinating how “Party in power does badly in interim local elections” is suddenly headline news now the Tories are out of power (having always been reported as par for the course previously), and yet “Official opposition party not only doesn’t do as well as opposition parties usually do, but faces existentially bad result” isn’t on any front pages.
🤔
Normal people: “We want less migration”
Leftists: “why do people vote for terrible parties”.
Normal people: votes for terrible party that advocates for less migration*
“The people have spoken; Labour will listen. That’s why I stand before you today with this sacred promise: my Government will build the *most* racist, *most* transphobic, *most* multimillionaire fellating Britain imaginable. For the good of *our* people, for the future of *our* children, I say to you today: that disabled guy can go fuck himself.”
Aren’t Reform taking Tory voters though? Many Reform voters have never voted Labour ever and wouldn’t have. So it would be wrong for Labour to focus on them.
There no listening to Reform voters, they do not care about facts, only their feelings.
Keir is doing a bad job but fk me has anyone seen any of reforms policies? I think morons blindly back them because “illegal immigrants”. The fact is they couldn’t solve that issue they are seemingly using that as a magic carpet into power.
They’re incompetent, there’s already infighting, no real substantial policies just tag lines on hot topics. They’ve already said they’d gut the NHS and penalise people with mental health issues and the disabled. How would the average reform voter benefit from having them in power? “My standard of living is worse but get them illegals sent back ENGERRRRLANNND”.
I don’t think there’s a political party that is about common sense and respect. I’m dead against illegal immigration, I know more than most about it because of a previous job. It’s not a simple fix when you’re bound by human rights laws and if you remove those it’s a slippery slope.
Can we not get a party that…
Deals with the illegal immigration, possibly look at the law of the first country asylum claim rule. We are an island.
Find out what is behind the glorification of drugs and violence in music. I don’t believe it’s art immitating life as often the artists don’t live that life. It has a big effect on kids and impressionable people and I believe it is a cause of many issues.
Healthcare, do not privatise the NHS.
Get the energy and “cost of living” greed crisis under control. These fuckers are sat saying costs of supply have went up yet they’re also advertising record profits.
Work to stop stoking racial tensions, were going backwards.
Tough on crime especially knife crime, get caught carrying minimum 2 years custodial sentence. Get prosecuted of certain crime in UK and you’re not born in the UK you get deported.
Legalise and tax cannabis. I don’t smoke myself but I’ve never seen stoned people smashing up the town centre or fighting. The tax revenue would be significant.
Stop taking things from the vulnerable members of society, kids, disabled, pensioners and people with mental health challenges.
Discrimination of protected characteristics is unacceptable and I’d extend that to transexual persons. People should be free to live their lives.
Open local community centres and encourage community based events and focus on support and taking pride in the place you live.
Someone at work today harping on about ‘what does everyone expect, the country is in a state’ (I do agree with that), followed by ‘the 70s and 80s were a golden age, loads of jobs, loads of welfare. Look at it now, all going to non-Brits, we need to take back England’.
At which point I rolled my eyes and closed my ears…. Obviously he’d forgotten about the Cold War, power cuts, Thatcher decimating industries and entire communities. Wouldn’t exactly class the 70s and 80s as the golden age…
People voting Reform with this type of argument are chasing ghosts.
It’s not just a matter of people going to Reform, I suspect a significant part of the issue is Labour losing leftist voters to other left (ish) parties and therefore not balancing things out.
They don’t seem to understand how many people in the UK are disabled, for example, or struggling with the cost of living vs rampant corporate greed. They have stabbed their own voters in the back and have only themselves to blame, and hyped up the racism of Reform voters by pandering to their rhetoric on migration without challenging it.
Everyone is massively overthinking this.
View this vote like a referendum on immigration. The majority of the country wants a big U turn on current policy.
If you take immigration away from Reform, they’re done.
If Labour just muddle on through and make no meaningful difference, it’ll be Reform 2029 majority
Labour might as well just be bold instead of carrying on with the status quo. Because at this rate Reform will be in power in 2029 anyway.
We don’t want Tory-lite, we want an actual labour party that stands for the working class. Labour will never attract more right-wing votes than the Tories or reform, stop taking the left for granted!
Please, for the love of God, don’t listen to the reform voters or the parties policies. That got us Brexit and subsequently, Liz Truss (for a couple of days).
If he doesn’t get a handle on immigration, reform wins. It is the only thing they have.
Tories created the problem with immigration for 14 years and now labour get the blame for trying to deal with it.
Here’s a couple of things that will move the needle and are not that outrageous:
– Reprivatise our water
– Invest In nuclear
– Decouple energy prices from gas prices
– Export our technology, arts and culture
And here are some about their roles:
– Do not take their next pay rise
– Slash how parliament benefits work
– Ban second jobs
– Force constituents to actually govern their area
Unless they stop illegal immigration, deport criminals and crack down on asylum seekers; then Reform will continue to gain and have a very good chance of winning the next GE.
It’s really simple for starmer. They need to build more homes and drastically stop mass importing of people.
Could voters start listening as well, maybe?
I’m 100% willing to recognise that Labour’s comms suck, but handing the keys to the likes of Farage is *monumentally stupid*.
Turning around with a Pikachu surprised face when Farage steals our assets and our rights, just like the morons in America are doing right now will not be helpful in any way.