In the Corbyn years, the Labour Together caucus of centrist MPs tried to make the case for making the party electable again. In 2020, with Morgan McSweeney as director, MPs in the group including Steve Reed, Shabana Mahmood, Lucy Powell, Wes Streeting, Bridget Philipson, Jim McMahon, Jon Cruddas, Lisa Nandy and Rachel Reeves got behind Starmer. McSweeney became Starmer’s chief-of-staff and is now the Labour Party’s campaign director.
It is a sign of the times that the faction is now confidently charting a path into Downing Street. A new pamphlet from the group “Red Shift“, based on YouGov polling, claims that there are “six distinct voter groups in England & Wales. To win the next election, a party must win four of them. In 2019, the Conservatives won five. Now, they are only winning in two.”
‘Stevenage Woman‘ and ‘Workington Man‘ are the key swing demographic groups apparently. In 2019, the Conservatives won both groups comfortably. Now Labour holds leads of 28 points and 41 points amongst each respectively. The authors warn that the electorate is volatile, Labour Together argues that two things will guarantee Labour’s victory:
The report points out that Stevenage (which has backed the governing party at every election since the constituency was created), is back in play – and Labour is forecast to win it. Guido suspects Stevenage Woman will not be impressed with Suzy/Eddie Izzard and the now seemingly abandoned trans agenda that Starmer is burning rubber reversing away from at speed. Labour’s Starmerites are determined to get the ideological barnacles off the boat…
