Editorial
The Labour Party offers the best hope for ordinary working people and their families at the forthcoming 5 May elections.
The Jeremy Corbyn leadership is putting forward the most progressive agenda the party has ever advanced, standing up for the general interests of the population by opposing austerity, racism and war. This situation, as previously described, is unprecedented in British politics.
Under this leadership Labour now fights the government’s austerity plans and attacks one Tory policy after another. It has also stopped launching ‘immigrant bashing’ campaigns and established a clear anti-war position on military intervention in Syria with a majority amongst party members, the PLP and Shadow Cabinet.
The Corbyn leadership is exploiting the government’s weakness and Tory party division. Voters are increasingly opposed to austerity and there is widespread anger at Cameron’s tax-dodging revealed in the Panama papers.
The government U-turns on welfare cuts and damaging exposure of Tory hypocrisy would not be happening under a right wing Labour leadership. The Tory difficulties in cutting working tax credits and attacking disabled people are because Labour under Corbyn and John McDonnell opposes them vigorously. This Labour leadership’s long-standing opposition to offshoring and tax dodges of all kinds places the party in a strong position.
Labour’s leadership are setting out clear objectives to radically improve people’s living standards. Addressing the People’s Assembly Against Austerity march on 16 April, McDonnell said a Labour government will end austerity and ‘…halt the privatisation of our NHS…’, ‘… build hundreds of thousands of council homes…’ and ‘…scrap the work capability assessment…’. Also the serious economic framework McDonnell has announced can restore Labour’s economic credibility – the key policy failure that lost it the 2015 General Election.
Unfortunately some on the Labour right would rather the Corbyn-led party failed than the Tories were defeated. The right is setting a ridiculously high bar for the outcome in the local elections, where some reduction of seats is realistically expected due to the support lost because of previous right wing policies.
The overwhelming majority of activists and Labour supporters want the party to succeed. Everything possible should be done to maximise Labour’s vote in all the elections taking place; in London, Scotland, Wales and the English local elections, including Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners. This is the current priority in British politics. Vote Labour!