Keir Starmer has backed away from sacking Labour frontbenchers who defied his instructions and stood alongside striking rail workers last week. Labour’s chief whip, Alan Campbell, spoke to the five frontbenchers – the shadow junior minister Alex Sobel, the whip Nav Mishra, and three principal private secretaries – who posted photos of themselves on picket lines. It is understood the five were to be sent letters about their future conduct but that all of them would be allowed to remain in their posts. Mishra tweeted last Tuesday as the strikes got under way: “As a proud trade unionist, I stand with all workers on our railway network who are taking industrial action to fight for their jobs and keep passengers safe.” Starmer issued a memo last week before the RMT union’s three days of strike action, informing his frontbench team they should show “leadership” and that “frontbenchers including PPSs should not be on picket lines”. Other frontbenchers stopped short of attending picket lines but made clear they backed the RMT’s decision to take industrial action. Starmer’s deputy, Angela Rayner, tweeted: “Workers have been left with no choice.”
A number of backbenchers, many of them members of the Socialist Campaign Group of leftwing MPs, also attended picket lines to show their support for the striking workers. At the time, Labour sources suggested that Starmer was inclined to take a tough line with those who had disobeyed his order, with one saying: “Keir’s Labour party is on the side of the public, and our decisions are driven by that. Not everyone will like it, and we’re prepared for that, but that’s how we’ll prove ourselves as a serious operation.” Starmer and his allies were keen to sidestep the Conservatives’ attempts to portray Labour as responsible for the strikes, despite the fact that the RMT is not even affiliated to the party. However, his memo infuriated some Labour MPs, including shadow cabinet members, who privately urged him not to take disciplinary action against junior frontbenchers who attended picket lines. One called the row “a kerfuffle over nothing”. Leftwing MPs are concerned about the party’s drift towards the centre under Starmer, who won the leadership on a prospectus of maintaining many of the policies put forward by Jeremy Corbyn.
The Labour leader confirmed on Tuesday that he had completely set aside the party’s radical 2019 manifesto. “What we’ve done with the last manifesto is put it to one side. We’re starting from scratch. The slate is wiped clean,” he told a New Statesman event. “What we do have to recognise is that having come through the pandemic, we need to look at everything in the round, and make choices about where we want to put our money.” Starmer also declined to say whether he would stick with the pledge to scrap tuition fees that he made during his leadership campaign, though he said the current arrangements “don’t really work for students” and that Labour would look at them. He defended the right of politicians to change their minds, saying: “If you don’t change your views as you experience life, then you’re probably not going to get very far.”