A LABOUR MP has said he “increasingly” believes the UK Government does not have the “intellectual and political capability” to take on the threat of the far right.
Clive Lewis – who earlier this month claimed Keir Starmer “doesn’t seem up to the job” – told The National a far-right march attracting around 150,000 people last weekend in London should be setting off alarm bells with all progressives, but he does not believe the current Labour leadership are capable of “doing anything about it”.
He added he feels the political culture within the leadership of the party is not one which is “open and tolerant” but was adamant he wants to remain in its ranks to try and change this.
When asked how long he felt Starmer had left as leader after he suggested he was “not up to the job”, Lewis said: “This is a time when there’s a rising tide of authoritarianism and populism, which could be the gateway to something much darker.
“That’s looming before us and people will often say ‘it’s the first year, you’ve got to give them a chance’ or ‘you’re sitting in the sidelines sniping’ but this isn’t just any situation we’re in. We’re facing potentially the most right-wing government in this country coming to power.
“You then ask yourself, does this Labour Government have the intellectual and political capability to not just weather that storm but be able to defeat it? I’m afraid to say the answer is increasingly, no.
“Shaking Donald Trump’s hand, securing hundreds of millions of pounds from BlackRock and Palantir – I mean, great – but these aren’t charities. These people are coming in and they’re seeing an opportunity, in a country that has just left the EU and is struggling.
“If that is Labour’s answer, if we think that GDP growth is the answer, and that’s what’s going to deliver us a victory in four years’ time, then we’ve got real problems.”
He went on: “We just had 150,000 people march through London to hear right-wing authoritarian grifters. This should be sending all kinds of alarm bells among progressives and yet I don’t feel I can see the ability or the potential for this current regime to be able to do anything about it, and it saddens me.”
It was announced last week multinational investment company BlackRock – which has previously been accused of contributing to human rights abuses – plans to invest £500m into enterprise data centres across the UK while the UK Government has signed a new £750m deal with data-mining company Palantir to create AI technology for the armed forces, despite its close partnership with the Israel Defense Forces.
Lewis (below) has been consistently critical of his party’s decision-making since it came into power last July but has insisted he will not leave Labour “unless he is thrown out”.
He said interviews and social media have been his only avenues to express what he feels about Labour’s policies because there is “little opportunity” for backbenchers to contribute to decisions.
“There’s very little opportunity for someone like me to come in and sit down with ministerial colleagues,” he said.
“We have talking shops where we’re told what’s going to happen. It’s not an environment where you feel part of a team, where you’ve had a process in the decision-making.
“So ultimately you end up speaking in external forums, like social media or interviews.”
He went on to say his decision to stick with Labour is “strategic”.
Lewis said: “I’m sticking with the party because it’s my Labour Party as much as anyone else’s. I would say there’s a substantial number of members, if not the majority, who would agree with a fair bit of what I say.
“I think increasingly our members are feeling […] you need people who are prepared to stand up and say ‘this isn’t working out’.
“I get it all the time [people saying] ‘why are you still in that party?’. It’s strategic. It is sometimes hard being in the Labour Party, but this Labour government has also done some good things.
"But if the political culture is not inclusive, open and tolerant, then that’s going to follow through in the policies and the mistakes you end up making.”
"I’m not going anywhere unless I’m thrown out and I hope that doesn’t happen," he added.
Lewis was watching from his office window in London when the Unite the Kingdom rally led by far-right agitator Tommy Robinson made its way through the streets earlier this month, and he posted on Twitter afterwards how his old school friend had told him he had taken part in it.
He said in his post his friend is “not racist” but said he wanted the Government “to listen to us” and to “feel proud of my country again”.
Lewis added that pretending everyone in these demonstrations is a racist “would be a massive mistake”.
He has warned Labour must not write these people off and must instead offer an alternative to the “hate and division” people are falling for from Reform and the far-right.
“In the 1930s, fascist movements had their core of true believers for sure, and millions went along with them looking for strength and a sense of purpose,” he said.
“They weren’t all necessarily true believers, but the true believers were offering them something and they followed.
“We have a choice. Are we going to lump everyone as a true believer or are we going to say these are people we need to offer an alternative to and fight for?
“The things my friend was looking for were purpose, meaning, a government that listens to him. Some people will offer hate and division to fulfil that end, and we have to offer an alternative.
“My fear is at the moment what we have is a very technocratic government which is putting all its eggs in the growth basket, there is no overarching ideology or story to tell.
“If you go down the pub people will tell you the story of Reform – stop the boats, political elites, we have to take our country back. What’s our story?”
He added: “Many of those people on the march, these are people we cannot write off because if we do we’ve already lost.”
The Labour Party and UK Government have been approached for comment.
