Labour MPs will hope PM's 'no surrender' speech marks start of progressives' fightback

If there is a cause that could be said to unite almost all Labour MPs and members from left to right, it would be equality and anti-racism.

- Jessica Elgot

If there is a cause that could be said to unite almost all Labour MPs and members from left to right, it would be equality and anti-racism. Many of them will have spent their early political lives in trade unions, student movements, charities or working as human rights lawyers.

Over the summer, MPs have agonised about their political futures and that of progressive politics. Missteps on the economy, welfare, Gaza and relations with the parliamentary party have been part of that.

But what has crystallised the sense of crisis for many has been the rapid rise in far-right rhetoric and violence, as well as the media perma-presence of Nigel Farage and his plans for mass deportations.

"It is a progressive emergency," one MP said. "We are at a moment in history where our kids might ask us: 'What did you do?"