Keir Starmer tells cabinet to stop looking down on working-class voters

Sounds as though Starmer could change things for the better, but it will be hard to put into practice.

I think it’s less about looking down working class voters and more about stop looking down on those who aren’t in the south east. Regionalism seems to be displacing classism as the many way to stratify. Of course it has routes in class but it feels like it gone far beyond that.

Having to say this or feeling the need to say this is really not good sign.
*Labour* cabinet need telling to not look down on the *working class*.
You’d think it were Tories.

He’s almost right, but I can’t help but think he’ll go about this the wrong way.

Labour – and all the mainstream political parties – need the working class to support them, not least to avoid the current situation of poorer voters being used as a weapon against democracy by unfriendly countries’ intelligence services.

But they won’t do this by validating the beliefs planted by the likes of Nigel Farage. That just concedes defeat to our enemies.

Instead, they need to absolutely hurl money at working class areas and public services. They need to prioritise funding services, transport, education, healthcare in working class areas like the national security emergency that it is.

Centrism has no solution to this problem. The solution is to increase the national debt if necessary, but use that money to improve life for the working classes. There’s literally no other choice. It’s an emergency now.

Doesn’t this imply that the labour cabinet and most likely other labour MP’s have been looking down on the working class? (Probably for a long time)

I bet their voters do as well.

Unless they’re trans, trans allies, disabled, on working benefits, immigrants, and any other minority they spot. Then feel free to say the most disengenious things possible for headlines so we can hoover up those sweet Tory/reform votes.

The guy isn’t a leader, he’s a sponge.

Its good that he says this becaue it at least shows some understanding on the very shaky ground Labour are on. However if you have to say this to your cabinet only like 8 months it almost proves how out of touch Labour already are. That the past 20 years immigration has been an increasing factor in how people vote and Labour still can’t barely grasp why.

This is an odd thing to say, if he said it. Kind of undermines his own party.

Too little too late. All this stuff about thick racists etc is embedded in many Labour activists, so it’s a bit of a problem that people who think migration just ran out of control over 25 years are talking about voting Reform. I don’t think that refraining from laughing at people and avoiding saying they are thick racists will placate them enough now.

Stop hammering small and medium businesses also, they make up just over half of U.K. turnover and employ 2/3’s of people working in this country.

If you want to increase sorely needed investment in public services and the NHS you need a growing tax base.

You just hit it with revised business rates and NI contributions. Increasing minimum wage was much needed and overdue, the rest ends up with you taking less in tax in real terms over the course of this parliament.

Or you can pay increased interest rates on your borrowing from the bond markets and have less to spend.

That they HAVE to be told tells me all I need to know about the ‘Labour’ Party.
A shower of self serving treacherous scoundrels.

They are only following their disaster of a leader! Who let’s face it has never been working class and has no idea what a working class person is!

I think the intentions are good, but he’s falling into the trap of homogenising the working class, especially as them all being primarily concerned with immigration.

Definitely listen to the working class, but to truly do that you need to go and speak to them and not go into that conversation presuming you already know what they’ll say 

That’s rich, coming from the guy that seems intent on criminalising most of the opinions held by the working class.

The latest episode of the News Agents had Ash Sarkar on who explained it so well, in that the Left (broadly, philosophically) is so fractured that it requires a degree in of itself to actually have a conversation without being looked down on.

Somebody could be all for stronger workers rights or better social protections — but if they aren’t read up on the latest trans issue or haven’t got the correct view regarding the Israel vs. Hamas situation, then they’re looked down on as not being part of the same group.

The Left — especially in recent years before the election — would much rather snipe and stab their own party to the very benefit of the Right. They’d almost prefer to have a Right wing leader than a slightly more centrist Left wing leader.

Exhausting.

Maybe just start trying to pursue policies which help them then like bringing down energy costs, reducing our water bills, getting our cost of living down. I can’t cope with these fucking bills anymore mate they’re getting pretty radicalising for me…

Imagine this coming from the head of the Labour party… Oh