LABOUR big guns today warn Sir Keir Starmer must radically change course or face a wipeout at the next election.
Downing Street is reeling after losing nearly 200 councillors and a crunch MP by-election in Labour’s old Red Wall heartlands.
GettyPm Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to change policy direction in the wake of the local election results[/caption]
The embattled PM will try to get on the front foot by announcing a new immigration crackdown and vowing an end to “soft touch” borders over the next few weeks.
But several leading Labour figures said the party is in “existential crisis” as they unleashed both barrels on the PM after their local election drubbing.
Writing exclusively in The Sun on Sunday, founder of Blue Labour Maurice Glasman said voters have sent a May Day “distress signal” that must not be ignored.
Lord Glasman said: “Be under no illusions, this Labour Government faces the same odium and fate as the Tories unless it acts decisively to lead the country in the right direction.”
He added: “Labour must repair the broken covenant it forged with the working class of this country.
“We must honour our tradition and return to our roots.”
Cuts to the winter fuel allowance given to pensioners “just felt wrong” while severe Net Zero targets are “a delusion”, the influential Labour peer warned.
Labour must get tough on immigration by quitting the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping the Human Rights act used by illegal immigrants to stay here, he said.
The Labour peer added: “The ability to deport a drug dealer must not depend on the quality of chicken nuggets in Albania.”
Breaking with No10 to demand a national grooming gangs inquiry, he added: “What has happened in our country is a sin and an abomination that no society can tolerate.
“It has led to a demon unleashed inside our body politic and it needs to be exorcised by the public trial and punishment of those who committed the deeds and those who concealed it.”
Labour lost 199 councillors and were routed on their former ultra safe councils of Durham and Doncaster by Reform on Thursday night.
Pollsters declared it the death of two party politics in Britain.
If Nigel Farage replicated the success at the general election he would become PM, they added.
Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Pendle in Lancs, said: “Make no mistake – this is existential for the Labour Party.”
Speaking in the aftermath of the grim results, Sir Keir said he will double down and go faster on his plans.
But the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and leader of Labour’s Red Wall Caucus, Jo White, said Sir Keir’s response “is an insult to all those candidates who have worked so hard”.
GettyReform UK leader Nigel Farage is joined on stage by Andrea Jenkins winner of Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty (L), and Sarah Pochin winner of the Runcorn and Helsby by-election (R)[/caption]
Ms White, MP for Bassetlaw in Notts, told The Sun on Sunday: “It is now time to be honest with ourselves and address the issue that has hung like a weight around our shoulders since the early days of this government.
“The Winter Fuel Allowance has now become our poll tax problem. We have lost the pensioner vote.”
She called for the benefit to be reinstated for all pensioners apart from those who pay the higher income tax level.
Jonathan Brash, Labour MP for Hartlepool, said “serious mistakes have been made”.
He said: “On winter fuel and disabled benefits in particular it’s time to recognise the harm those decisions are doing and that they must be corrected.”
Privately, senior government insiders admit cuts to the winter fuel allowance cost them councils and the Runcorn by-election – which they lost by just six votes.
One senior insider said: “We know it cost them. They won’t U-turn on it yet – but they might in six months.”
Sir Keir will try to prove he understands the need to go “harder and faster” on change by unveiling an immigration white paper in the coming weeks.
No10 wants to wean Britain off sky-high immigration by linking work visas to a requirement to train more Brits in those skills.
Engineering visas are expected to be caught in the crackdown.
A No10 source said: “The British public have been gaslit for far too long.
“Time and again, they have been promised control of our borders. And time again, they’ve been failed.
“Our tolerant and decent country was turned into a one-nation experiment in open borders leaving public services and housing creaking under the pressure.
“Keir knows just how angry this makes the public, and rightly so. Decency and respect taken advantage of. That ends now.”
The source added: “That means a proper strategy to plug the skills gap, so British workers are put first.
“And it means a clear message – if you want to come here, you’ve got to pull your weight. Because Britain isn’t a soft touch country.”
Cabinet ministers rallied round the PM – insisting he is the man to take on Nigel Farage’s victorious Reform Party.
A Cabinet minister said: “It is painful when parts of the country that have been with us historically through the ages turn elsewhere.”
The minister added: “Keir has shown he is adaptable and self critical. He is still in a towering position as a leader.”
A fresh poll showed voters think Mr Farage’s party knows what it stands for and has a clear sense of purpose.
And while they do not believe Reform is ready for government they believe the party is better prepared than the Conservatives, according to the survey by Opinium.
MAURICE GLASMAN: Founder of Blue Labour says Keir Starmer must slash immigration, double the Army and quit the ECHR to win back voters
MAY Day is a day of celebration to me and the Labour Party.
We remember our ‘martyrs dead’ who died in factory fires, mining collapses and calamities at sea while earning a crust for themselves and their families.
And we honour those who built the trade unions that protected people at a time when they were worked to death and dumped in a paupers grave. The burial and building societies of County Durham were at the heart of this.
Britain has been blessed by our unique Labour movement. We never went Fascist and we never went Communist.
The Labour Party stayed close to its working class roots – and the working class overwhelmingly voted Labour. It was of them, by them and for them.
But this May Day was not a day of celebration.
Our voters sent up a distress signal and we have to take it to heart.
We were destroyed in County Durham, a council which was Labour for 100 years.
A day of celebration was turned into one of lamentation. Our cradle had become our tomb.
Having said that, the Conservatives were the biggest losers by far. But that is also a warning of what happens when a magnificent tradition is corrupted by greed.
The market worm had eaten into their patriotic soul and now they are a rotten apple. Thatcherism was their poison not their medicine.
They said: ‘take back control’, they said ‘controlled immigration’, they said ‘levelling up’. But they did the opposite and are no longer trusted.
Be under no illusions, this Labour Government faces the same odium and fate as the Tories unless it acts decisively to lead the country in the right direction.
I was invited to President Donald Trump’s inauguration and I witnessed first hand the energy of the MAGA rallies.
It was an act of defiance against the ruling classes.
Labour must beware – it is happening to us.
Nigel Farage may be a Saloon-Bar Thatcherite and a Putin appeaser, but he understands the anger of our people and knows how to direct it against us.
That is the terrain upon which we must now fight.
Labour must confront the problem that the bigger the State grows the more useless it is. AI is our friend in restoring the effectiveness of Government and cutting it down to size.
Without that story of renewal, cutting the winter fuel allowance just felt wrong. Net Zero by 2030 is a delusion, which is worse than an illness.
Farmers and business both came friendly but are no longer allies. Things must change.
So how does Keir Starmer change the dynamics of disenchantment to one of renewal?
First, he must restore our Armed Forces. It must double in size over the next five years. Our sovereignty requires that we have the ability to defend our borders and support our allies.
Second, we need an industrial strategy to support our defence capacity. We must learn to build our own weapons and not go shopping.
I have been to Ukraine 12 times since the war, and I am convinced the partnership with Ukraine is a blessing for our country.
We must deepen and intensify our partnership with Ukraine.
London-Kiev must hold the balance of power in Europe against Paris-Berlin.
France and Germany are going down the drain. The EU makes action impossible. We are free of all that. We must seize the moment.
To underwrite the industrial strategy half the universities should be turned into vocational colleges linked to the needs of the armed forces and industry.
We desperately need a skilled workforce that does not rely on immigration.
Third, we must immediately leave the European Court of Human Rights and scrap the domestic Human Rights Act.
The ability to deport a drug dealer must not depend on the quality of chicken nuggets in Albania.
The industrial renewal can only be pursued by abolishing the Treasury and wrapping it into No10.
No business is run from accounts, unless it is bankrupt.
Fourth, water and steel should be immediately nationalised. It is unacceptable that our vital strategic assets are owned by hostile foreign powers.
Fifth, there must to be an immediate police and judicial enquiry into the systematic rape of young girls by ‘grooming gangs’.
This inquiry should have powers of arrest and the trials should be televised.
What has happened in our country is a sin and an abomination that no society can tolerate.
It has led to a demon unleashed inside our body politic and it needs to be exorcised by the public trial and punishment of those who committed the deeds and those who concealed it. This should be led from No.10.
The Prime Minister is a great public prosecutor. He knows how to do this.
Labour must repair the broken covenant it forged with the working class of this country.
We called ourselves Labour for a reason. We must honour our tradition and return to our roots.
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