Labour is moving left – but not far enough or fast enough to defeat the right

Editorial / 27 September 2026 Why the Garvaghy Road crisis matters for both Britain and Ireland 27 September 2026 ‘Reviving the Garvaghy Road route for an Orange Order parade after 28 years, when it was a focal point of lethal violence back in the 1990s, looks like a bid to take us backwards too’

LABOUR is moving left. Not dramatically, but perceptibly.

A string of announcements at and around its conference explain why unions and socialist MPs feel this is a government they can influence.

Restoring the Union Learning Fund, which improved access to training for workers across the economy, brought the biggest cheers during Chancellor John Healey’s speech.

Louise Haigh’s founding of a new Insourcing Unit at No 10 is the first indication since Labour’s election that it will act on promises to deliver “the biggest wave of insourcing in generations.”

It follows victory for the Civil Service union PCS in securing a commitment to bring 2,000 jobs in cleaning, catering and security across Whitehall back in house, and accompanies announcements of a pilot scheme at Transport for London that will see workers seconded to the municipally owned company as it explores insourcing cleaning at bus and Tube stations across the capital.

Insourcing is becoming one of the highest-profile union campaigns, and no wonder given the billions leeched from public services in private profit and the shocking abuses of workers’ rights and dignity that lie hidden behind outsourced contracts.

It is the obvious corollary to extending public ownership, and the government’s declaration that Avanti will be the next train operator to have its services brought back into public hands — a move that will mean by next year seven in 10 passenger journeys in Britain will be on publicly owned trains — show that government is continuing in that direction too.

All of this is welcome. The problem is that it’s on a very limited scale. If Labour is now doing what it says it will, that’s an improvement on the dishonest Keir Starmer administration, but so far Burnham’s team is more following through on Starmer-era promises than announcing policies to match his extremely ambitious pledge to reject 40 years of neoliberalism.

Take the Chancellor’s keynote speech, surely a chance to set out economic priorities. It was billed as about reindustrialising Britain, but the only significant investments announced were in military projects, such as naval shipbuilding.

Creating a context for a revival of British manufacturing more widely — key to which would be cutting energy prices through public ownership, and investing in infrastructure like high-speed rail or rail freight capacity — was entirely absent, as was investment in renewable energy apart from nuclear power.

Healey’s plans seem entirely consistent with the priorities of the Starmer administration, and indeed he is on record describing Burnham’s as a “continuity” government. That cannot be reconciled with reversing the privatisation of economic power since the 1980s that Healey himself quoted the Prime Minister on in the same speech.

Some in the labour movement exaggerated the (real enough) wins in the Employment Rights Act because it was so much better than unions’ experiences under the Tories. Now it is important that relief at a government making some steps in the right direction does not see unions take the pressure off over further and faster change.

Labour does not have much time. The far right are a growing threat both electorally and on the streets. People will need to feel a positive improvement to their lives before the next election if it is to have a hope of being re-elected, which makes plans to hold off on a national care service till after the next election foolhardy.

Insourcing jobs is a sensible priority, since better pay and conditions for 1.3 million currently outsourced workers is change on a scale that will count. But we need renationalisations well beyond the railway, in sectors that affect everyone — most urgently water and energy — and more measures to cut costs directly, such as rent and price controls.

Labour’s left has a spring in its step after the long night of Starmerism, but it cannot afford to relax. Incremental changes will not stop the right — we need beefier policies than this.

Labour Conference 2026 / 28 September 2026 Breaking with neoliberalism must mean a shift in wealth and power 28 September 2026 RICHARD BURGON MP looks at the change the Labour government must now deliver under a new leadership

Labour Conference 2026 / 27 September 2026 Haigh pledges action on ships and insourcing 27 September 2026 Editorial / 13 September 2026 Rebuilding Britain: pointers and pitfalls at TUC 2026 13 September 2026 Politics / 21 July 2026 ‘We need to be a cost-of-living government’ 21 July 2026 New PM slashes fuel bills and culls Starmer deadwood, but peace activists warn that placing John Healey as new Chancellor shows ‘beyond doubt that the military industrial complex is in charge of Burnham’s economic policy’