{"id":46623,"date":"2026-02-10T12:34:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46623"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:34:40","slug":"keir-starmer-and-the-purge-that-devoured-its-architects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/10\/keir-starmer-and-the-purge-that-devoured-its-architects\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer and the Purge That Devoured Its Architects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The same shameless tactics that Starmer used to purge the UK’s left are now destroying his project from within.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Grace Blakeley<\/a> Feb 9\u2219Guest post<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This\u00a0post was originally published by Grace Blakeley<\/a>\u00a0on her\u00a0Substack<\/a>.\u00a0Zeteo<\/strong>\u00a0is republishing it with her permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keir Starmer on Feb. 2, 2026. Photo by Alishia Abodunde\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The departure of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney<\/a>, over the Peter Mandelson<\/a> scandal exposes Starmerism for what it is: a political project built on deception, created by people guided only by an insatiable desire for power and a belief in their own invulnerability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its inception, Starmerism has been presented as a boring, bureaucratic project \u2013 a necessary return to \u2018sensible, grown-up politics\u2019 after a period of irresponsible populism under Jeremy Corbyn. The suspension of members, the proscription of organizations, the purges, the disciplinary innovations, the legal threats, the message control \u2013 these were all measures designed to return the party to \u201celectability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Starmerism was never about winning elections. It was about destroying the Labour left \u2013 and with it, any hope of a socialist government running one of the world\u2019s largest economies. But the tactics required for the success of such a project \u2013 stealth, deception, ruthlessness \u2013 are now helping to bring about its collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upgrade to paid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After 2017, the Labour right confronted a problem. They needed to get rid of Corbyn and replace him with a leader who could dismantle the party\u2019s internal democracy and destroy the Labour left forever. But they had to stage their coup from within the Party\u2019s democratic structures. In other words, they needed members to vote for their anti-member project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the disastrous 2019 election result, no one questioned the need for a new leader. But Corbyn\u2019s policies \u2013 public ownership, stronger labour rights, higher taxes on wealth \u2013 remained extremely popular; not just among members, but across much of the electorate. So, the Labour right developed a plan to present their candidate as the successor to Corbyn\u2019s democratic socialist project \u2013 as the \u201cCorbynism without Corbyn\u201d candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starmer was the natural choice. He had been close enough to Corbyn to give him legitimacy among much of the left, without ever really laying his ideological cards on the table. His \u201cCorbynism without Corbyn\u201d platform was epitomised by his 10 pledges, from promoting public ownership, to raising taxes on the rich, to investing in a Green New Deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Team<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Starmer clearly never planned to follow through on these pledges \u2013 they were convenient lies told to win the Labour leadership after the largest expansion of the Party\u2019s left wing in modern history. In this sense, Starmer\u2019s team required a very specific set of skills, like stealth, ruthlessness, and intimidation. They needed to be proficient bureaucrats, capable of leveraging party rules to their advantage \u2013 not skilled electoral operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starmerism was built by deeply cynical, power-hungry people who would happily lie, cheat, and dissemble to get their way. Few figures embodied that tradition better than Peter Mandelson, long nicknamed the \u201cPrince of Darkness.\u201d This nickname stuck because he understood something fundamental about British politics: you don\u2019t need to be popular to be powerful – only the ruthlessness and guile to destroy your enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Starmer speaks to Peter Mandelson on Feb. 26, 2025. Photo by Carl Court\/AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as Starmer took power, he immediately set about doing just this. Starmer\u2019s team managed selections, destroyed internal democratic processes, and invented reasons to purge the left. They defined an entire ideological tradition \u2013 the tradition upon which the Labour Party was founded \u2013 as illegitimate within the Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speed and comprehensiveness of their success would have been impressive, were it not for the fact that they were playing politics on easy mode. The British establishment fully backed Starmer\u2019s agenda. Moves that would have been criticised as \u2018Stalinist\u2019 in any other context were welcomed by the British press. And the donations just kept flooding in. For a while, Starmerism seemed unstoppable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pride Before the Fall<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The latitude given to the destroyers of the left bred a dangerous complacency among Starmer\u2019s top team. They came to believe that they were completely untouchable. And why wouldn\u2019t they? For years, they had been able to lie, cheat, and deceive without consequence. They marginalised their critics, protected their allies, and managed the media with ease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this success made Starmer\u2019s team forget the underlying fragility of their project. Starmerism derived coherence from its war on the Labour left. Once the enemy had been defeated, his coalition lost its unifying purpose. What remained was not a movement but a managerial network \u2013 one held together by a shared history of deceit, rather than any ideological coherence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upgrade to paid<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their main enemy defeated, Starmer\u2019s acolytes began scrambling for status. Figures who had once been protected suddenly became expendable. Controversies that had been covered up were deployed opportunistically to take down former allies. In other words, Starmer\u2019s team began using their well-worn anti-left tactics against each other \u2013 each believing that they<\/em> would never be the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Collapse<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the end, Mandelson and McSweeney were ruined by their own hubris. Mandelson\u2019s Jeffrey Epstein links were common knowledge when he was appointed \u2013 but McSweeney still advised Starmer to go ahead with it, because his experience had led him to conclude that supporters of Starmer were beyond reproach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having consummately destroyed their internal enemies, these people truly believed that they were invincible. They didn\u2019t anticipate that, with the Labour left destroyed, they would outlive their usefulness. And once they outlived their usefulness, the skeletons they had been hiding for decades \u2013 with the full permission of the entire political and media establishment \u2013 were suddenly revealed for all to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace Blakeley<\/strong> is the author of <\/a>Zeteo\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> \u2018Billions\u2019 column<\/a>. She is a British economic commentator and the author of the book Vulture Capitalism<\/a>. Subscribe<\/a> to her Substack for more of her writing, and make sure you\u2019re signed up to receive her <\/a>Zeteo<\/a><\/strong> column, \u2018Billions.\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The views expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Zeteo<\/strong><\/em>.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The same shameless tactics that Starmer used to purge the UK’s left are now destroying his project from within. Grace Blakeley Feb 9\u2219Guest post This\u00a0post was originally published by Grace Blakeley\u00a0on her\u00a0Substack.\u00a0Zeteo\u00a0is republishing it with her permission. Keir Starmer on Feb. 2, 2026. Photo by Alishia Abodunde\/Getty Images The departure… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46623"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46627,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46623\/revisions\/46627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}