The Labour Party has been left divided over plans to combat Nigel Farage amid local election fallout after Sir Keir Starmer’s party suffered a close by-election defeat and lost 198 council seats – double what the number strategists had expected.
Some MPs have called for the prime minister to take tougher action over migration despite him already heightening efforts weeks before polling day, while others are urging him to stick to the Plan for Change, which won them the general election in July, reverse cuts to disability benefits, and reinstate the winter fuel payments to some pensioners.
During the election campaign, Labour HQ insisted to members that they could stop Reform gaining seats by addressing Nigel Farage’s controversial comments on an insurance-based scheme for the NHS, accusing him of “fawning over Putin”, and promoting that Reform UK voted against the Workers’ Rights Bill – which will stop companies sacking workers who do not accept lower wages and worse conditions, and prevent firms getting rid of employees with no reason if they have less than two years’ service.
But, now, Labour figures are split on whether they should turn more right-wing on issues such as immigration to chase Farage’s viral polling or focus on socially democratic policies in a bid to deliver on core Labour principles.
Jo White, chair of the Red Wall Caucus of Labour MPs, has called on the party to do a “reset” and urged Starmer to be more decisive, drawing a comparison with Donald Trump signing executive orders to take action.
“Sir Keir Starmer has shown strong leadership internationally and he needs to show the same leadership in our own country and stop the government pussyfooting around.”
Writing for the Telegraph, Jonathan Hinder MP urged the PM to freeze immigration to Britain and either reform the European Court on Human Rights or leave.
He claims that if Labour adopted these policies, Reform UK would be left with “nothing left to say” as immigration is the party’s core appeal.
“If we don’t reconnect with our traditional base in the north, the Midlands, Wales, it’s over. We must be the party of the patriotic working classes, or we are nothing.”
However, others have told the government to “urgently change course” by introducing a wealth tax and dropping plans to restrict disability benefits.
Former transport secretary Louise Haigh is the most senior figure to criticise Keir Starmer’s response to the local election, claiming he “failed to acknowledge any need to change course but simply committed itself to double down on the plan, whilst haemorrhaging votes to the parties of our left and right”.
She urged the government to abandon its fiscal rules and adopt a more radical economic strategy to counter Farage’s appeal to voters.
“Voters are desperate for change and they’ve sensed from us that we’re not capable or interested in delivering it,” Haigh told The Times.
Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome warned the government against a move to “double down on decisions that disproportionately harm working class communities and have resulted in these defeats”.
“We will never out-Farage Farage on immigration – nor would it be morally right for us to attempt it. Most Reform voters support progressive policies on wealth redistribution, improving workers’ rights and nationalisation in some sectors, which are also popular with our base. These are the areas we should be focusing on,” she wrote in the Labour List website over the weekend.
Mother of the House Commons, Diane Abbott, agreed with this view, labelling welfare cuts as “alarming”.
She said: “I hope that we will learn the lessons from what has happened, but if we don’t, we are going to find ourselves in a very politically vulnerable position. These aren’t just knee-jerk votes, these are votes that may not come back.”
Following the local elections, Keir Starmer commented: “The lesson of these elections isn’t that the country needs more politicians’ promises of ideological zealotry. It isn’t that there is some easy solution, as promised by our opponents. It’s that now is the time to crank up the pace on giving people the country they are crying out for.”
A political cabinet meeting will be held today in Downing Street without civil servants to discuss the challenge from Reform to Labour-held seats across the country.