Originally Posted by
ragingpup
Yep, no easy wins for the PM on this. I am far from convinced that any voters who see the immigration issue as being the most pressing issue we face, and therefore very likely to be buying into Reform already, will listen to Starmer's rhetoric on this, and switch back to Labour? Why wouldn't they stay with someone who appears more convincing on it? (even if I suspect Farage's stance is animatedly trying to win power to do a run on the economy in true disaster capitalism stylie that will make him and his backers more fortunes - surely he knows that turning boats back towards France is illegal and won't work - and there are certainly no other ideas from him I've heard!)
Many on the left of the Labour party already are despairing, and perhaps leaving room for the radical upheaval in strategy from the Green party proposed by Zack Polanski who wants the party to emulate Reform's insurgency on the right but trying to capture the mass of voters that swung to Corbyn in 2017 but were then lost in the ensuing melee as Corbyn's leadership fell apart afterwards. I think the huge numbers here have had no logical home and have just supported Starmer as a means to get the Tories out. Definately a space there for a radical alternative from a left point of view, but no idea about Polanski as a person/potential credible leader. Be interesting if the current 2 party set up can be challenged at both sides and what such a movement could draw in terms of numbers to challenge them all.
As it stands, if it stays the same, I can only think that one again, these masses will default to Labour just to make sure Farage doesn't get the opportunity to take over, but such a split could of course enable Farage. But there are certainly masses of voters on the further left of Starmer that could possibly buy into an insurgent left movement if Starmer's approach doesn't have the tangible positive impact on the economy and services.