Labour left

For the faction in the Australian Labor Party, see Labor Left. For other groups aligned with the Labour Party and left-wing politics in the United Kingdom, see British left.

Members of Momentum attending a rally for left-wing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2016

In British politics, the Labour left is the more left-wing faction of the Labour Party.[1][nb 1] Alongside the Labour right, it is one of the two main wings of the Labour Party. It is also one of its four main factions alongside the soft left, the old Labour right, and the New Labour right. In the British parliament, it is represented by the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour members of Parliament (MPs).

A Labour left has existed within the Labour Party since its founding. Historically, the Labour left was one of the two main factions of the party, rivalling the Labour right. In 1980, the Labour left peaked in power as left-wing Labour MP Michael Foot became party leader, marking the first time that Labour had a leader from the Labour left. After the 1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election, this traditional Labour left dissolved and split into two new factions, the soft left and the modern Labour left. While the modern Labour left remained on the left-wing of the party, the soft left moved towards the party's right-wing, now occupying the space between the Labour left and the Labour right. Foot became a part of the soft left. In 1983, he was succeeded as party leader by soft leftist Neil Kinnock, who took steps to modernise Labour by reducing the influence and power of the Labour left within the party.

In 2015, the Labour left saw a resurgence when the left-wing Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was elected as party leader. In 2020, Corbyn resigned and was succeeded by Keir Starmer, who was from the party's right. Under Starmer's leadership of the party, Corbyn was removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party and barred from standing as a Labour MP in the 2024 United Kingdom general election; he was expelled from the party in May of that year, but stood as an independent candidate and won his seat in the election. Starmer has been accused of marginalising the Labour left by intervening in Labour's parliamentary selection process in favour of more centrist Labour candidates. There are no members of the Labour left in the Starmer ministry.

  1. ^ Miliband, Ralph (1961). Parliamentary Socialism: A Study in the Politics of Labour. George Allen & Unwin. pp. 14–15. ISBN 0-85036-135-4. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b Stone, Jon (5 January 2016). "Labour's left wing 'can't tolerate dissent', a right-wing Labour MP has claimed". The Independent. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  3. ^ Eaton, George (23 September 2017). "How the Labour left triumphed: the inside story". New Statesman. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  4. ^ Walker, Jonathan (24 September 2017). "Labour holds its annual conference in Brighton as the party has united around Jeremy Corbyn". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  5. ^ Beckett, Andy (3 November 2017). "The wilderness years: how Labour's left survived to conquer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  6. ^ Crines, Andrew Scott (12 July 2011). Michael Foot and the Labour Leadership. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-4438-3239-7. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  7. ^ Hassan, Gerry; Shaw, Eric (20 June 2012). Strange Death of Labour Scotland. Edinburgh University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7486-5557-1. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  8. ^ "First black woman MP". South Wales Echo. 12 June 1987. p. 1.
  9. ^ Elgot, Jessica (20 September 2018). "'I'm hard-left, hard-remain': grassroots bid for Labour Brexit seachange". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  10. ^ McKinstry, Leo (1996). Fit to Govern?. Bantam Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-593-03980-9. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  11. ^ Shipley, Peter (April 1985). "The Hard Left". IRIS News. Vol. XXXI. Industrial Research & Information Services. p. 9. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  12. ^ Cronin, James E. (17 September 2016). New Labour's Pasts: The Labour Party and Its Discontents. Routledge. p. 243. ISBN 978-1-317-87391-4. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  13. ^ Wiard, Andrew (27 September 2001). "Foot's golden age is long over". Tribune. Vol. 65. p. 19. Retrieved 2 April 2023.


Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).