Starmer's ‘thought police' turning off working class voters, says Labour lord

Telegraph

07-05-2025

In his speech on Wednesday, he claimed Labour has isolated its core voter base by dismissing ordinary people who are simply 'in pain' by branding them as 'far-Right' or racist.
He called for a 'cultural change' targeting the 'thought policing' of 'acceptable discourse' in order to win back the working class.
'It's been the case for the last 20 to 30 years that I would say that Labour culture has been a hostile environment for working-class people, because if you actually say what you think, you get condemned,' Lord Glasman said.
'And the inability to express the grief ... this is a huge part of the story, is that we see people in pain, and we call them far-Right or populists or nativists or racists or sexists, but no, they're just speaking.'
He added: 'Obviously, the first part of the argument is that if we're a patriotic party that's pro-industry, pro-Army, pro-police, we will attract working-class support hugely.
'But there's got to be a cultural change where this thought policing of what is acceptable discourse, the power of HR departments, has got to be targeted ... to create a political space once more, in which the people who created our movement are allowed to speak.'
He suggested that even Ernest Bevin, the former Labour foreign secretary, would be forbidden from standing for the party today because he would not be considered 'progressive' enough.
A 'working-class insurrection'
Last year's general election saw Labour win back dozens of 'Red Wall' seats that backed Boris Johnson to 'Get Brexit Done' in 2019.
But any hopes of a working-class revival were dashed at the local elections on May 4, where Reform made huge gains in core Labour heartlands such as Durham and pipped Sir Keir to the post in Runcorn and Helsby.
Lord Glasman said the 'only way' for Labour to get the better of Reform, which has declared itself as the new 'party of the working class', is to lead an 'insurrection' of his own.
'As Leonard Cohen says, everybody knows. Reform is a working-class insurrection against the progressive ruling class, and the only way to counter it is for the Labour Government to lead the insurrection,' he said.
'To celebrate the collapse of the era of globalisation, to embrace the space of Brexit, the renewal of the Commonwealth, the restoration of vocation, the primacy of Parliament, the integrity of our peace, the effectiveness of our Armed Forces, the protection of our borders, and the resurrection of Labour as the tribute of the working class.'
'Stain' on the political class
Lord Glasman's 'Blue Labour' group, which leans Left on the economy but Right on social issues, has previously urged Sir Keir to go further on grooming gangs by launching a national inquiry into the scandal.
On Wednesday, the Labour peer suggested perpetrators of historic child sex abuse should face show trials, referring to the purges of political dissidents carried out by the Soviet Union.
'Rape gangs systematically preying on young girls is what they call bang out of order. It is an abomination that must be purged from the body politic,' he said.
'The fact that it has been considered as s--- happens, rather than out of order, is a stain on me and the entire political class. It is time to resurrect more traditions from socialism, the purge and the show trial.
'The difference being that the accused in this case are not, by definition, innocent. It is a festering wound, it is still going on and it has not been stopped. The role of the televised trial is to witness the reason why it had not been stopped.'
Dominant, not hegemonic
Lord Glasman also compared the current Labour Government to the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who led the Communist Party during part of the Cold War.
'When you win less than 34 per cent of the vote and gain 71 per cent of the seats in Parliament, it is more reminiscent of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev than the renewal of social democracy.
'The party is dominant, but it is not hegemonic.'