Sanders Advises UK Far-Left against Starmer

American independent congressman Bernie Sanders appeared at a far-left fringe event in Brighton, England, on Sunday to encourage Labour party members to scrutinize leader Sir Keir Starmer’s rejection of “progressive” policies. 

Attending the ‘World Transformed Festival’ via video link, the US senator was asked how to deal with a “centrist leader” by former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. McDonnell, a self-avowed Marxist, complained that the “left” of the Labour party was experiencing “problems in ensuring a working relationship” with the party’s leadership, asking Sanders how Starmer could be convinced to adopt a “radical programme.”

Relating McDonnell’s question to his relationship with US President Joe Biden, with whom he noted he had “disagreements,” Sanders said a working relationship was possible due to Biden’s nature as a “very, very decent human being.” 

“[Biden's] history is one of being a moderate centrist, but he is a very decent human being. I know him quite well and I say that without hesitation. He does not like to see suffering, racism or sexism around him. To his credit, and I think he deserves enormous credit, he looked around him and he saw the kind of movement that we helped develop … and the excitement of young people in wanting transformative change. We still have differences, but to his credit, he was prepared to think big, not small - and he understood that the only way that we bring people into the political process is by talking about the pain that they are now experiencing.”

Addressing the concerns of a member of Young Labour later in the conference, the US congressman said that what the leftist “progressive movement” was calling for was not “radical demands,” though it was time to scrutinize those who said ‘no’ and put them “on the defensive.” 

“There is no reason why in the UK or the United States all workers should not be able to earn decent wages and have decent benefits. There is no reason all over the world [why] we cannot provide quality healthcare to all human beings as a right of citizenship.”

Organised by Corbynite campaign group Momentum, ‘The World Transformed’ festival aims to “revitalise the socialist presence at the Labour Party conference, bridge the gap between the parliamentary and social movement left, and develop a space for radical, participatory and creative political education.” 

Coinciding with the 2021 Labour Party Conference, from which far-leftist influence has recently been ejected, McDonnell said at the end of Sunday’s session that he and Jeremy Corbyn had undertaken a “political analysis” of Starmer and concluded that it is “not the left that is undermining Starmer, it’s Starmer that is undermining Starmer.”