Ralph Miliband, Tony Benn & Keir Starmer on Parliament and Protest
Keir Starmer has said that Labour is not a party of protest but a party that wants to win Parliamentary power. Indeed, that is what it says in Sidney Webb’s 1918 Labour Party Constitution.
Hence as below Starmer is merely repeating a long held point and one can only wish him success. One might note that Blair focused absolutely on it and did not let himself be distracted by factional issues or protests.
“I am now leading a Labour party that wants to change lives and give Britain the fresh start it needs. That means turning from a party of protest into a party that can win power – then hand that power to working people. I make no apologies for that”. Keir Starmer, Observer 31st July 2022
Empirical and flexible about all else, its leaders have always made devotion to that system their fixed point of reference and the conditioning factor of their political behaviour. Ralph Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism 1961
Every morning I wake up and realise that it is my responsibility to see Labour get into Government. Tony Blair at PLP meeting 24th January 1996 (recorded in Tony Benn’s Diary)
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