Left Foot Forward

For the film also known as "Left Foot Forward on the Beat", see Big Drum Under Left Foot.

Left Foot Forward
Type of site
Blog
Created byWill Straw
EditorJosiah Mortimer, Basit Mahmood
Revenue£70,000 (donors 2011)[1]
URLleftfootforward.org
CommercialNo
Launched2009
Current statusActive

Left Foot Forward (LFF) is a left-wing political news and comment site in the UK, established in 2009. Its creator, Will Straw, the son of Alice Perkins and Jack Straw, edited the newspaper until December 2010.[2]

Straw was succeeded by Shamik Das, who was succeeded in February 2013 by James Bloodworth, then in February 2016 by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin. In June 2017, Josiah Mortimer took over as Editor.[3] In 2020, Joe Lo joined as co-editor, before being replaced by former Newsweek journalist Basit Mahmood in May 2021.[4]

The site is part of a cohort of British left-wing blogs which attracted interest from the media in 2010 and 2011.[5][6][7][8]

In January 2014, the charity Oxfam cancelled an event at the East London Mosque after Left Foot Forward made the charity aware of the profile of one of its headline speakers, Ibrahim Hewitt, who had written a book for GCSE students calling homosexuality a "great sin", and saying that gay people should be "severely punished" under Islamic law.[9][10]

In 2016, Left Foot Forward described itself as "progressive" and "in agreement with left of centre policies and politicians".[11]

In 2018, a not-for-profit co-operative called Political Pixel started supporting the operation of Left Foot Forward, alongside other left-wing blogs LabourList and Political Scrapbook.[12][13] In 2020, Left Foot Forward became independent of Political Pixel.[14]

In March 2018, Left Foot Forward joined Parliament's Press Gallery to report from Parliament[15] and the outlet joined the state-approved press regulator IMPRESS in January 2019.[16] LFF was one of the outlets which questioned government ministers during the daily COVID-19 press conferences in April 2020.[17]

Contributing editors to the site include accounting professor Prem Sikka, former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, and Unite the Union Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke.[18]

  1. ^ Dan Sabbagh "Is this really the death of political blogging?", The Guardian, 13 May 2011
  2. ^ "Our people: Will Straw, Institute for Public Policy Research
  3. ^ "Biographies", Left Foot Forward website
  4. ^ "About/Write for Us". Left Foot Forward. 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  5. ^ Pickard, Jim; Boxell, James (31 May 2010). "Labour's stance on immigration under criticism". Financial Times.
  6. ^ Helm, Toby (21 March 2010). "Political blogs: Our round-up of the best political pundits on the web". The Observer. London. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
  7. ^ Bell, Matthew (10 January 2010). "In his father's footsteps. Straw the younger's political trek". Independent on Sunday. London.
  8. ^ Iain, Dale (13 May 2011). "A second life for UK political blogging?". The Guardian. London.
  9. ^ Barnett, Adam (2014-01-23). "Oxfam cancels event at East London Mosque over 'homophobic' speaker". East London Advertiser. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  10. ^ Marsh, Stefanie. "Desperately seeking the Bethnal Green girls". Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  11. ^ "About". Left Foot Forward. Archived from the original on 6 February 2016.
  12. ^ Mayhew, Freddy (13 March 2018). "Left Foot Forward 'enters the fray' as latest news website to join lobby of political journalists based in Parliament". Press Gazette. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  13. ^ "Political Pixel". Co-operatives UK. Archived from the original on 15 May 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  14. ^ "About/Contribute". Left Foot Forward. 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  15. ^ Mayhew, Freddy (13 March 2018). "Left Foot Forward 'enters the fray' as latest news website to join lobby of political journalists based in Parliament". Press Gazette.
  16. ^ "Left Foot Forward joins press regulator". Left Foot Forward. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  17. ^ Left Foot Forward [@leftfootfwd] (April 17, 2020). "The government have only warm words to offer care workers and NHS staff. No commitment to treating care workers as more than 'low skilled labour'. @josiahmortimer's Q at the No 10 press conference:" (Tweet). Retrieved 23 September 2020 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ "About/Contribute". Left Foot Forward. 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2020-09-23.