Starmerites are backing a quiet revolution for Labour

We all know that there used to be no such thing as “society” because there was an individualistic “thing” called Thatcherism: a body of values, attitudes and policies personified by Margaret Thatcher. Should we, I wonder, now be speaking of “Starmerism”?

- S E A N O ' G R A D Y

The answer to that, after a mere eight months of Labour government, is obviously “not yet” – it’s far too early. But what is emerging is a remarkable infusion of populism into Keir Starmer’s very traditional and conventional brand of social democracy.

We see this almost every week now in the choices the Starmer administration has been making – on the two-child benefit rule, the tougher rhetoric and messaging on immigration, on shredding overseas aid, boosting defence spending, downgrading net zero by expanding airports, sacking half of NHS England's staff – and, now, some cuts to social security. Only the cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance could be said to be something Nigel Farage wouldn’t back.

Yet the surprising thing is we still expect mass protests and Commons drama when the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall presents her package of cuts, which, at about £5bn to £6bn, aren’t all that big in the great scheme of things.

We have not yet come to terms with the fact that this is the most right-wing (using the term loosely) parliamentary Labour Party in history and she won’t encounter that much trouble.

Labour MPs are, by historical Labour standards and recent Conservative standards, incredibly and impressively disciplined. The 2024 cohort don’t actually seem to have discovered that there’s a voting lobby for “No” in the Commons. Or perhaps, more generously and realistically, they actually agree with Starmer and Rachel Reeves, broadly, and don’t think it worth capsizing the government and giving the Tories some easy talking points for a merely symbolic protest.

They really do think that the government has a “moral duty” to design the welfare system such that people are encouraged to work – and they readily accept that the country can’t afford the prospective increase in the social security bill.