British General Election 2024 – Highlights and Lowlights – Loveless Landslide, Sandcastle Majority. Far-Right Hiding in Plain Sight, House of Paisley Falls in Antrim – and a Message of Hope from new MP Shockat Adam, Leicester South
Let’s start with positive news :
Shockat Adam MP, Leicester South – “This is for the people of Gaza”.
When you listen to this June 25 car-crash interview with former Leicester South Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, you would be forgiven for thinking he was a member of the far-right racist party, Reform.
Shockat Adam was not alone. Five pro-Gaza independent candidates (including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North) are members of the new Westminster parliament :
Sir Keir Starmer was warned :
Far-Right Reform party monsters hiding in plain sight
In Ireland we are used to a proportional election system. The Labour landslide victory in the 2024 British General Election looked impressive, but far-right monsters – especially the Reform Party of Nigel Farage -are hiding in plain sight. There are compelling takes :
Donnacha Ó Beacháin :
Irish Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik seems to be in denial :
Congratulations to incoming @UKLabour Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer Wonderful to see this vote for #Change – #LabourLandslide in British #GeneralElection2024
Big mistake Ivana :
Gary Gibbon’s Loveless Landslide
The British Channel 4 political correspondent Gary Gibbon calls the result a “loveless landslide”. He stresses it was a rejection of the Tory government, and was not a vote of confidence in Starmer’s new Labour government.
“Loveless landslide” has taken flight across the blogosphere – here is a useful take from Scotland, via Bella Caledonia :
Loveless Landslide in Scotland The author pulls no punches
The election was a disaster for the SNP who are reduced to just 9 seats. It was not a ‘bad night’ it was and is a catastrophic defeat seeing the departure of Kirsten Oswald, Deidre Brock, Tommy Sheppard, Alison Thewliss and high-profile MP Joanna Cherry who took no time to lay the blame at Nicola Sturgeon’s door. This was not an election lost by the SNP by a bad campaign, by a confused pitch or by a strange manifesto, it is the culmination of years of confusion, lack of direction, loss of strategy and a complete failure of leadership and ambition. It is the culmination of an inability to resolve contradictory policies and take part in any form of self-honesty about where we are and why. The twin drivers of Holyrood policy failure and a complete confusion about what the Westminster cohort were for has led to this debacle. The party is now short of funds and will likely ‘stagger on’ with Continuity John towards the 2026 election. But without an honest appraisal and some major changes they will suffer further decline.
Here is Jeremy Corbyn directly answering questions from Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart; an example of good journalism :
Q Are you worried that Labour is coming with mini-austerity…How are they going to be able to invest in public services and get the country going again if they are running on an austerity package?
A I think you have taken us straight to the kernel of the problem….
“The DUP has had more positions on the Irish Sea border than the Kama Sutra” – The kingdom of Sir Jeffrey and the House of Paisley Fall
The six county statelet (Northern Ireland) featured a bad Democratic Unionist party (DUP) result. The party lost three of its eight seats, its vote share was substantially down, and Ian Paisley Junior provided a Portillo moment in the Magherafelt Count Centre :
Link :
Results, July 2024 British General Election, Six Counties
Paisley junior’s fall, and the bad DUP results, had identifiable causes.
The Alliance party’s Sorcha Eastwood took Lagan Valley, the old seat of the DUP’s ex-leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, currently facing serious child-abuse charges with his wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson. The seat was Unionist landslide country for decades, the kingdom of Sir Jeffrey; before Donaldson Ulster Unionist party leader Jim Molyneaux always won with massive majorities. It is clear the Donaldsons’ scandal contributed substantially to this huge Lagan Valley defeat.
The dark cloud of child-abuse is twinned with another DUP political catastrophe : Brexit and the Irish Sea border between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.
Once Brexit was implemented, a decision had to be made : an EU/Britain border had to be established. Would it be along the border partitioning Ireland, or would it be an Irish Sea frontier? Boris Johnson grasped the problem – a border in Ireland would be an unenforceable catastrophe. In the six county bit of Ireland Brexit was rejected in the 2016 referendum by a margin of 55 to 45 per cent. The no majority included a substantial number of (ex) unionist voters. So Boris surrendered to Brussels – EU trade rules apply in all of Ireland, and a Common Travel area continues. The DUP invoked this “treachery” to pull the plug on the Stormont devolved assembly. The party decided in 2024 it needed to return to Stormont, and got the help of British premier Rishi Sunak, who provided camouflage – the Windsor Framework was unveiled. The Irish Sea border continues, but Jeffrey Donaldson claimed the opposite. This was food and drink to the DUP’s pro-Brexit rivals – mainly the Traditional Unionist Voice [TUV] party led by Ian Paisley’s former mentor and colleague, Jim Allister. Four of the DUP’s eight member Westminster MP team (including Ian Paisley junior and Sammy Wilson, a parroter of Vladimir’s anti-Ukraine talking points) dissented from Donaldson’s retreat on Irish sea border. New DUP leader Gavin Robinson tried to limit the damage by saying that Jeffrey Donaldson had “oversold” the Windsor Framework. Allister teamed up with the far-right Reform party led by Nigel Farage : “treachery” was the cry. This was not a hard sell to many Unionists in North Antrim. Allister toppled a 54 year old dynasty which ruled the roost since Paisley senior’s first Westminster election victory in 1970.
Political journalist Suzanne Breen summed up the fiasco :
This leaves Ireland vulnerable to a new British government led by a party which has a morally disgusting habit of bending to racist pressures. We can say the same about the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/ Green Party and Gombeens (FFFGGG) coalition controlling the Dublin government – and the Sinn Féin (SF) party.
Link :
5 takeaways from the elections
SF had a successful Westminster election campaign, retaining all its existing seven seats, and coming close to taking an eighth (Derry East). However in Derry (the Foyle constituency) and West Belfast the People Before Profit (PBP) candidates increased their vote share compared with the last local government contest – and this was directly attributable to the Palestine issue.
West Belfast, British General Election 2024 Result
Derry (Foyle) British General Election 2024 result
John Meehan July 7 2024
Anti-Capitalist Resistance Statement :
After the Landslide: Resistance and Realignment
1 – The overwhelming majority of people will be glad to see the humiliation and annihilation of the Tories. They have lost the greatest number of seats in their history. Conservative governments have given us 14 years of misrule, corruption, and dishonesty. Cameron and the Lib Dems’ austerity ended or devastated the lives of millions. In 2010 there were 35 foodbanks; in 2024 there are 3,572. Our health service, education, local services, utilities, and much else has been starved of vital funds or pillaged for private gain. Our rivers and seas stink and are unfit for swimming while water company shareholders have been lavishly rewarded. Johnson’s callous disregard for public health resulted in thousands of needless Covid deaths. Rules were imposed on us and not followed by the government. He gave millions to Tory cronies to provide unsuitable PPE. Liz Truss’s extreme neo-liberal budget led to millions suffering massive mortgage rises. Getting Brexit done has hit growth hard and stopped European freedom of movement. On Sunak’s watch, energy prices have soared and we have experienced the worst cost of living crisis for decades. The demonisation of migrants, asylum seekers, and trans people has been stepped up. We can at least savour for a moment the political defeat of the politicians responsible for it all. Truss, Shapps, Mordaunt, Gullis, Rees-Mogg, Jenkyns and other ministers are all gone. Sunak has suffered a reverse 2019, this time the Farage party damaged the Tories, not Labour.
“The overwhelming majority of people will be glad to see the humiliation and annihilation of the Tories. Conservative governments have given us 14 years of misrule, corruption, and dishonesty.”
2 – Starmer’s new government has been welcomed by big business. The Economist, the Financial Times, and the Murdoch press have supported Labour at this election. When Starmer said he changed the party so that he could change the country he was half truthful. One sure way to get into power is to destroy any possible left challenge to the power of the capitalist class who really runs things. Yes, he changed his party but his new partnership with capital for ‘wealth creation’ will not change the country for the many. It will help streamline profit-making for the few. Public money will be lavished on business to encourage ‘growth’ that will supposedly magically trickle down to improve wages and social spending. Corporate staff have already been embedded throughout his cabinet team to ensure this vision will be implemented.
3 – Labour’s big election victory follows the vicious counterattack of the Labour Party’s right and centre against any hint of a moderate left challenge to the power of capital. Starmer’s hold over the workers’ movement has been strengthened. Any re-run of a Corbyn-like left majority inside Labour is dead in the water – and will be for the foreseeable future. For a while, the new government will probably enjoy a honeymoon period in which it may be difficult for tensions or conflicts with the unions or the left to emerge.
“Starmer’s new partnership with capital for ‘wealth creation’ will not change the country for the many. It will help streamline profit-making for the few.”
4 – However, this result is a Conservative collapse as much as a Labour win. One journalist has correctly called it a ‘loveless landslide’. The unfair First Past the Post system massively distorts the degree of Labour’s triumph. Yesterday it got 9.6 million votes and around 34% of the vote. The Corbyn party he claimed was preventing any electoral victory got 13 million votes and 40% of the vote in 2017 and 10 million and 32% in a 2019 election that was distorted by Brexit and the de facto Johnson/Farage electoral coalition. In Cymru, there was little enthusiasm for Starmer. In fact, despite winning 27 out of 32 seats, Labour received nearly 150,000 fewer votes than in 2019 when Jeremy Corbyn was leader. In the poorest communities, such as Ely and Caerau, the turnout was only 23%. Everyone has noted the lack of enthusiasm for the Starmer project. Turnout is down seven percentage points on 2019 at around 60%. Workers’ struggles are more likely to develop in this climate where there is not a strong identity with the government. There is less enthusiasm than with Blair in 1997. However, this new government has already indicated that it will not pay public sector workers a decent wage, nor will it raise taxes on the rich to pay for Health, Education, Social Care, or local council spending needs. It is very likely that workers will strike against this government, and many others will campaign against the limits of its programme. It is unlikely to break with US imperialism with regard to Israel’s apartheid state. Unlike Spain and Ireland, it will not recognise the Palestine state now. The significant vote to Labour’s left shows there is potential for resistance to its moderate policies.
5 – We must support every struggle or resistance to the policies of this social-liberal government. We do not recognise any honeymoon. To start with we demand the immediate implementation of its very limited programme with no further backtracking – increased rights for workers from day one, the progressive taxes they have proposed on private schools and non-doms; ditching the Rwanda project, its measures for education, health, and the environment.
“This result is a Conservative collapse as much as a Labour win. The unfair First Past the Post system massively distorts the degree of Labour’s triumph.”
6 – But this is just the starting point for the workers’ movement to force the government to take much more radical measures – extending labour rights by abolishing all of Thatcher’s repressive legislation; a wealth tax and increased capital gains tax to pay for our NHS, education, and local services; taking the energy and utility companies into common ownership and using any surplus generated to develop a much more ambitious energy transition plan to tackle the climate and ecological crises in ways that ensure the polluters pay; removing the two-child cap and other benefit caps immediately and strengthening the 2010 Equality Act to better protect the oppressed (including trans people) while ditching the repressive Public Order laws. These are just a few examples, but such proposals go alongside the mobilisation of workers in these sectors to draw up action plans. We do not just put pressure on Labour but try and develop independent self-organisation on all these issues.
7 – Yesterday’s general election results show that up to 3 million voted to the left of Labour, either for a Green manifesto more radical than Labour’s or for left independents or candidates challenging Labour on Palestine. The Greens alone got 6.8% (up by 4), nearly 2 million votes, and now have 4 MPs. Independent pro-Gaza candidates won four seats and ran Labour close in seats like Wes Streeting’s in Ilford North. Andrew Feinstein got over 8,000 votes in Starmer’s constituency, Faiza Shaheen in Chingford got 25%, and would have won if Labour had not split the vote against Duncan Smith. Corbyn, in the end, won comfortably. We have never seen so many independents in parliament. A weakened left still remains inside Labour like the Grassroots Alliance, Momentum, and the Socialist Campaign Group. These thousands of activists inside and outside Labour provide the basis of a more structured network or movement of ecosocialist and climate activists who are prepared to resist Starmer’s failure to put forward the change we need. The direct action current of the green movement such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion occupy this political space too. The greater-than-expected performance of all these forces provides us with some hope that a triumphant Starmer government will not steam ahead without any opposition. At the beginning of the campaign, he wanted to dump Britain’s first black woman MP. He was stopped by a grassroots campaign linking up with Left MPs, unions, and the world of culture. There is no reason that such alliances cannot be constructed on other issues. The big majority may make it easier for MPs to defy the Labour leadership – their rebellions will not bring down the government. Every commentator and poll have pointed to both a very strong desire to get rid of the Tories but combined with little enthusiasm for Starmer and his project. So people may be willing to challenge the government much sooner than we may imagine. Even the big success of the Lib Dems, up to 71 seats, partly reflects a desire to properly fund health and social care which goes beyond Labour’s limited spending plans.
“The significant vote to Labour’s left shows there is potential for resistance to its moderate policies. We must support every struggle or resistance to the policies of this social-liberal government.”
8 – Farage’s racist Reform party was, after Starmer, the surprise winner of the night. It has 4 seats and over 4 million votes. The score is over 3 points better than its previous high point in 2015. Reform came second in hundreds of seats, including in some Labour ones. Farage’s main message after the vote was that he aimed to overtake the Tory party and become the main opposition to Labour. He is in a position to play a role in the realignment of right-wing politics, either through a reverse takeover of the Tory party or through a new movement that will confront traditional Toryism and win over some of its base and MPs. This process has already started. It is also a threat to the Starmer government. Farage has said he wants to be the real opposition leading mass protests. Given the small number of his MPs relative to the millions of votes he is in a good place to exploit the frustrations of his base who feel alienated from the political process. Labour, for narrow electoral reasons, did not challenge Farage, thinking he would wound the Tories more than Labour. Starmer even withdrew its candidate from the battle in Clacton. Labour, as much as the Tories, bear responsibility for the rise of Reform. Labour has normalised the racist framework of the debate on migrants. It will be up to the left and the workers’ movement to confront a rising Farage current. His success will also strengthen the confidence of neo-fascist street gangs led by Tommy Robinson and others.
9 – Ecological issues were mostly absent from the campaign. Labour had already diluted its Great British Energy project campaign and did not foreground it – being terrified that voters might be scared off by its costs. Both the Liberal Democrats, who soared beyond even the exit poll to 71 seats, and the Greens benefited from putting the environment on the agenda. The left needs to step up and lead on an eco-socialist strategy. The other great absence from the electoral campaign was Gaza. The mainstream parties barely mentioned it but the standing of independent candidates completely disrupted this. We salute the work of all those activists who succeeded in getting the voice of Palestinians heard in this election.
10 – The ACR will put itself at the service of building resistance to Labour’s social liberalism. We will support every campaign to defend trans, women’s, and democratic rights, Palestine, workers’ living standards, and public services and to push for strong measures to tackle the climate and ecological crisis along with a just transition to green jobs. Within the broad movement, we will argue for the need for an anti-capitalist eco-socialist current that can provide the basis for a strategic alternative to Labourism.
Source :
After the landslide – resistance and realignment
Anti-Capitalist Resistance is a revolutionary Marxist organisation in England & Cymru/Wales.
A small extra note by Paul Stewart, July 9 2024
For all those smug BritNat unionist labour party people…in Scotland the SNP got 30pc of vote and 9 seats. Labour got 35pc and 38 seats….
Let’s see how the new Brown thirst for a federal settlement works out.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
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