Breaking with neoliberalism must mean a shift in wealth and power

RICHARD BURGON MP looks at the change the Labour government must now deliver under a new leadership

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WE come to this Labour Party conference in a very different place from last year.

Then, Nigel Farage was in the ascendancy and the drift towards a far-right government seemed increasingly inevitable. The Starmer leadership’s response to that threat was making the situation worse. It aped Reform, conceded political ground to the right and took progressive voters for granted.

Along with my colleagues in the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, I resisted that direction. We led the opposition in Parliament to disability cuts, the two-child benefit cap and the winter fuel cuts. We demanded sanctions on Israel over its genocide in Gaza. Keir Starmer never listened and even suspended some of us for voting in line with the deep concerns of our constituents.

We also warned that the political strategy pursued by Starmer, Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney was breaking up Labour’s progressive alliance, losing votes to the left and so handing seats to the right. Sadly, that is exactly what happened at May’s elections, when huge numbers of decent Labour councillors and other elected representatives lost their seats through no fault of their own.

Starmer’s resignation has created a real opportunity for change and for a Labour government that is on the side of our communities and capable of stopping Nigel Farage reaching No 10.

Key to defeating the far right is rebuilding Labour’s broad electoral alliance. That means now acting as a real Labour government and delivering the change millions expected when they voted Labour but did not see under Starmer.

That is why I welcome Andy Burnham’s speech outside Downing Street, setting out the need for a new economic model and a break with 40 years of neoliberalism.

Our rigged economic model is the cause of so many problems facing our communities: deindustrialisation, insecure work, profiteering by privatised utilities, soaring housing costs and wealth increasingly grabbed by those at the top while public services are run down.

But ending neoliberalism cannot simply be a slogan. It must mean a huge shift in who owns wealth, who exercises power and whose interests come first.

The task of the Labour left, trade unions and wider progressive movements is to turn that vision into reality.

The immediate priority must be protecting people from an ever-deepening cost-of-living crisis. That is even more urgent as the economic consequences of Donald Trump’s war on Iran bring higher energy and food costs. The impacts of the climate crisis, and the coming El Nino, will add further pressure.

Labour must respond with a clear message to the public: the government will work to ensure that the majority are protected and that those with the broadest shoulders contribute the most to tackling this crisis.

Britain has enormous wealth, and it is only right that this is redistributed to help people through these difficult times.

We should start at the coming Budget by taxing extreme wealth, ending the unfair advantages that see wealth taxed less than work, and imposing windfall taxes on banks and other companies making super-profits from higher interest rates and the soaring prices of essentials.

That could raise tens of billions of pounds to protect living standards and rebuild the public services on which everybody depends.

But redistribution alone is not enough. Breaking with neoliberalism requires structural change.

We must end the idea that the market provides the answer to every problem. Essential services should be run in the public interest, not to extract profit. As a first step, water and energy should be brought into public ownership, as the railways have been.

I fully support the campaign by RMT, Unison, PCS and the POA, and hopefully even more unions soon, for the government to deliver its manifesto promise of the biggest wave of insourcing across public services. That should include getting Palantir out of our NHS when the break clause can be exercised next year.

On housing, we need to commit to building millions of council homes and impose rent controls to give people breathing space.

We should also build on the Employment Rights Act with a second Bill giving workers and trade unions much greater collective power, as the trade unions are demanding.

Changing the narrative on public investment is key too. Much greater investment is required to rebuild the NHS and cut waiting lists, lower class sizes and address the crisis in social care. It is also essential to rebuild our outdated infrastructure, which is essential to developing the high-skilled jobs and modern industries we need.

That should go hand in hand with a real industrial strategy that renews Britain through socially useful production, not ever-higher military spending. The trade union campaign against this push for ever-higher military spending, now backed twice by TUC Congress, is important.

Responding to the mounting dangers of climate breakdown will also require major public investment. This is now an economic, public health, food and national security emergency that no government can ignore. That investment must help protect communities from increasingly severe floods, fires and other impacts. That must go alongside doing everything we can to cut emissions. That means saying no to Rosebank.

Of all the changes announced by the new Burnham government so far, by far the most significant is the recent package of sanctions on Israel. This, and Ed Miliband’s acceptance of the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s occupation is illegal, represent a real break from Starmer’s immoral response to Israel’s war crimes and violations of international law.

The desperate reaction from the Israeli government, which even included banning me and other MPs from entering Israel, underlines that it does not treat this lightly.

The ban on settlement goods, sanctions on those involved in financing and servicing the occupation, and further restrictions on arms sales are significant steps. But clearly much more is needed both to meet our moral duties and to comply fully with our legal obligations. The scale of sanctions imposed on Russia for Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine should serve as a blueprint.

There is a wider lesson our movement must draw from that shift on Palestine. Mass campaigning can change politics for the better. Let us be in no doubt: the government’s shift came because hundreds of thousands of people refused to be silenced. They organised in the streets, workplaces and communities up and down the country, lobbied Parliament and made a real difference.

We need that same determination in all the struggles we face, including countering the threats posed by billionaire domination of AI and the growing influence of wealth and dodgy money over our democracy. Britain must not become more like the United States, where vast private fortunes exercise extraordinary political power. The left and unions need serious answers on limiting big money. We cannot fudge this question.

With Starmer gone and Burnham saying that he wants to learn the lessons of Labour’s disastrous first two years in government, during which our support halved, there is a real political opening.

But openings can close. The government will face enormous pressure from those who want nothing fundamental to change and who would rather see Farage in No 10.

Our role is not to sit back and hope for the best. It is to organise, campaign and push for the change people voted for.

That is how we prevent a Trump-style government taking power in Britain and deliver the change that tens of millions across the country not only need but deserve.

Richard Burgon is Labour MP for Leeds East.