The Cheshire constituency of Runcorn and Helsby is scheduled for a key by-election this year.
The incumbent, ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury, announced his resignation this month after being convicted of assault charges (for drunkenly punching one of his constituents on a night out!).
Last July, locals elected Amesbury with a thumping majority of 22,358 votes (54 percent). The second place candidate, representing Reform, received only 7,662 votes (18 percent).
Surely, given such a strong Labour majority in this ‘Red Wall’ seat only nine months ago, you would expect this by-election to result in an uneventful continuation of Labour Party rule. Think again!
Already, before campaigning has even begun, pollsters and bookmakers are predicting a narrow Reform victory.
There are no two ways about it. If this transpires, this would represent an utter humiliation for Starmer and his supposed ‘landslide majority’ government.
The first by-election a new government faces is often viewed as a litmus test. On this account, the bankruptcy of Starmer’s premiership will be clear to all – if it wasn’t already.
Labour’s betrayals
How can this reversal be understood? Have workers in this Cheshire constituency suddenly become right-wingers and racists in the last nine months? This is clearly not the case.
A recent poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft asked constituents what the two most important issues facing the country were. While 34 percent said immigration, 30 percent said the cost of living, 28 percent said the economy, and a further 24 percent said the crisis in the NHS.
As one local man put it: “Most people in Runcorn are thinking about benefit cuts and taxes… This country is going wrong. It needs somebody that can sort this out and look after the people who need looking after. It needs change.”
Runcorn and Helsby, like many northern towns, has suffered decades of de-industrialisation and austerity. Labour won last year not out of any enthusiasm for Starmer’s programme, but because locals hoped for some respite from the Tory policies destroying their communities.
But these hopes have been quickly dashed. With Labour’s continued attacks – the cutting of the winter fuel allowance; their refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap, and most recently, the planned £5 billion cuts to disability benefits – working people are desperate for an alternative.
And given the lack of any viable alternative on the left, Reform alone has been able to channel this righteous class anger against the establishment – albeit in a demagogic, reactionary way.
“We should give somebody else a chance,” another local told The Guardian. “We had 14 years of Conservative rule. But nothing’s any better, and it’s not getting any better at this moment in time.”
Another said he doesn’t know “what Reform stands for” but thinks they would be a “better option than what we have”.
“Why are we just persevering with the same thing? If it doesn’t go well, it doesn’t go well, but it’s not going well anyway.”
It is clear that Labour party campaigners are blind to this anti-establishment anger and frustration. Instead, they have opted to try and outmaneuver Reform from the right, for example on the question of immigration.
Karen Shore, Labour’s new candidate, recently posted on her social media campaign page that “Labour is fixing the mess and has already removed over 19,000 people who shouldn’t be here”, stating in large, bold characters: “My priorities – close the asylum hotel.” With liberal ‘progressives’ like these, who needs right-wing reactionaries?
Class approach
Many workers, young people, and activists are rightly concerned about the prospect of a Reform victory. But what is the way forward?
We must be clear: Labour and the rest of the capitalist establishment are the ones to blame for the rise of Reform. It is the betrayals and attacks of both Starmer and the Tories that have created the fertile soil for right populism to grow.
To let Labour off the hook would be a criminal mistake. Anti-racist activists must first of all aim their fire at Starmer and the system he represents. Labour are, after all, the ones currently in power, carrying out austerity and attacking migrants – not Reform.
Unfortunately, such a class approach has not been taken up by anti-racist groups like Stand Up To Racism, which recently organised a national day of action in Runcorn.
Their main slogan is ‘Don’t Vote for Racist Reform UK’. But their campaign material makes no mention of Starmer’s Labour. And they are encouraging campaigners to mobilise the vote against Reform (i.e. for the other establishment parties).
Given the context, this can only be understood as implicit support for Labour’s candidate: Karen “close the asylum hotel” Shore.
This kind of ‘lesser evil’, ‘popular front’ politics – providing a ‘radical’ cover for a de facto campaign in support of Starmer’s status quo – will only bolster Reform, and serve to discredit the left.
These methods are a dead-end for the left. The only way to cut across Reform’s support is to fight for an uncompromising class programme: directed against all of the liars, warmongers, and racists in Westminster, and the wretched capitalist system they represent.
Oxford RCP mobilises against all the capitalist crooks
Jatin and Hugh, Oxford
RCP comrades in Oxford recently attended a demo called as part of a ‘day of action against racism and fascism’, supported by the local trades council and Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) group.
In an attempt to broaden out the protest, the organisers toned down the political content of the demonstration, with no radical demands in their speeches or slogans. But this didn’t even achieve the desired result, with only around 20 activists in attendance.
This small gathering restricted themselves to chants that followed the following formula: “What do we say to [insert name of reactionary political figure]? Fuck you! Throw them in the sea!”
When we asked to make a contribution from the megaphone, we were told that our speech needed to be submitted “ahead of time” for approval.
Similar tactics have been employed by these groups on previous occasions – for example, preventing young activists from speaking about Palestine at another local SUTR rally, on the grounds that they might alienate Zionists!
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Undeterred, we engaged with the crowd, proudly flying our red flags and approaching people with The Communist.
We aimed our attacks on Starmer’s Labour, explaining that the responsibility for the rise of reactionaries like Farage lies with the capitalist establishment and its representatives.
Passers-by expressed sympathy with this position. “Why is Reform winning?” one young worker asked rhetorically. “They [the demo organisers] aren’t explaining anything.”
We linked Reform’s success to their posturing as an anti-establishment party. And we raised the need for a genuine revolutionary alternative to Farage, the Tories, and Starmer’s Labour
“It’s not us versus immigrants,” stated one local with some illusions in Reform, “it’s us and immigrants versus the bastards in the banks!”
Exactly right!
