‘Starmer’s man, unhealthy at politics, in a discipline of males with lesser morals however sharper political reflexes’

On May 8, 2026

The local election results are a crunch moment for Labour. The boat must change course now, or capsize. Whether it does so with its current captain, or a new one, is less important than its direction

14:05, 08 May 2026Updated 14:14, 08 May 2026

Welcome to the time machine. Our gaze through the crystal ball into a Reform government walking into Downing Street. It’s April 2029, and Nigel Farage is the UK Prime Minister. Britain is caught in a turquoise trap – as its united kingdoms slowly split away from each other. Thatcher 2.0 – the AI version, has swept to power.

Today should be a wake up call not just for the Labour Party, but for every one of us. The teal tide is coming. In three years or under, driven by household insecurity exploited by a politics of grievance, our country could take the furthest right turn it has ever taken in our history. There is no time to waste in correcting course.

Time and again, people in Britain have voted for change. They tried it with Brexit. They tried it with Boris Johnson. They voted for Labour. But they looked out of their windows yesterday morning, and they saw only yesterday’s empty milk bottles – change had not come.

Worse, the ghoul of Peter Mandelson has haunted Britain’s doorsteps, whispering to a public that was already out of faith in politicians that Labour is just more of the filthy rich same.

In almost two years, Labour has done more in office for everyday people than has happened in a decade and a half. There have been serious upgrades to workers rights, rises to the lowest pay packets, both cash and compassion shown to families on the breadline.

But in a time of false prophets to the left and right, there has been no sweeping vision that sews these achievements together. Trapped in precarious work, struggling to put the tea on the table, people needed to know things could really, actually get better.

Stability has felt like stagnation. Facing an ever-closer precipice, nobody wants incremental, managerial improvements to the cliff path. Labour’s dwindling doorstep army have spent weeks pointing to the Renters’ Rights Act, the biggest overhaul of employment rights for half a century, the scrapping of hereditary peers, and billions of green energy commitments.

But its councillors and activists understand more than anyone that being heard is not a political party’s birthright. It is a privilege that must be earned. Labour squandered the tiny window of attention afforded to new governments. Its early weeks were too slow, too negative, and too focused on its old internal enemies.

A rickety ship that found itself flung at global headwinds of historic power – its plans for calm, queenly passage derailed again and again by the deranged demagogues in the White House, in the Kremlin, in the Knesset, and beyond. Meanwhile, costly mistakes – including on winter fuel – have turned Keir Starmer into Kryptonite on the doorstep.

With populists to the left of him, and populists to the right, the Prime Minister has too often felt like an analogue man in a digital era. A good man bad at politics, in a crowded field of men with lesser morals but with sharp political reflexes. A man out of time. And now, today, running out of time.

Article continues below

What is abundantly clear on May 8 2026, is that this is a crunch moment for the Labour Party. The boat must change course now, or capsize. Whether it does so with its current captain, or a new one, is less important than its direction. This is Labour’s Back to the Future moment. There is still time to go back and fix things before oblivion.

Failure will lead to a tide of teal sweeping the country at the general election, as if Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen had been left in charge of the exit poll.

There is no time to lick wounds. There is no time for navel-gazing or self-indulgent factionalism. It’s time to remember how much today hurts, and to use it to move forward. As the US labour activist Joe Hill famously wrote in his 1915 telegram before his execution – “don’t mourn, organise”.