The counter-revolution is here. The logical outcome of the project by Keir Starmer and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, to smash the Labour left, was always going to be a different, unfamiliar kind of government. It has arrived. During the election campaign, and for the six months after it, the differences with familiar Labour were fudged. But with a looming economic crunch, dire polling and the rolling tide of Trumpian reaction, that fudge is over.
How do we know? From the government-distributed videos of shackled migrants being deported. From the increasingly hard-edged demands for civil-service cuts and from early, urgent savings on health benefits. From the Rachel Reeves-led pushback against the net-zero agenda, via Heathrow’s environs and the Rosebank oil and gas field.
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