What about the independents?

This campaign is seeing a swarm of independents running in their own name. We cannot assess every single one of them. We call to vote for those independents who run in open opposition to Starmer’s Labour on a pro-working-class platform. In Islington North, we will support Jeremy Corbyn, who runs independently after being purged from Labour. We will also support Andrew Feinstein in Holborn and St Pancras, who is running against Starmer himself. Many others surely deserve a vote.

However, the fact that there are so many independents is not good news. It reflects the disorganised and weak state of the left. For months, we have been urging all anti-Starmer, pro-socialist groups and candidates to unite their efforts. But most preferred to run their own little thing in a disorganised fashion with useless infighting over constituencies.

This is because many independents still hope to remain in the good graces of Starmer’s Labour, the left Labourites and trade union bureaucrats. Indeed, running in one constituency is relatively harmless and symbolic. It takes some votes away from Labour and, at best, it will mean an independent MP who can ask one or two embarrassing questions in the House of Commons. However, building a real movement for the working class in open opposition to the next prime minister is an entirely different business. It means waging a real fight, making many enemies, risking your career and losing respectability in Labourite circles. The truth is that those running as independents do so because they do not want to do that.

But that is precisely what is needed! Particularly since a Starmer-led government will require a powerful fightback. The squeamishness in building a forceful opposition to Starmer’s Labour and to anyone on the left who supports him is why the anti-Starmer opposition is so divided. This will prove devastating for the coming fight against a Labour government.