Between Farage and Polanski: How Can Labour Still be a Viable Choice?

Image - Dylan Bueltel

Labour can’t catch a break. Left-leaning voters feel betrayed on immigration, benefits, and workers’ rights. Conservatives find them weak on immigration, improving quality of life for citizens and being all talk. By chasing right-wing centrists, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer pleases neither side and comes across as inauthentic and ineffective. The root cause is pandering.  

Once you change your values, it’s never enough. 

From the rightwing voter’s view Starmer's government is historically unpopular because they’ll always be seen as a left-wing party. Starmer has made many controversial internal changes to appeal to these voters, such as suspending or driving prominent left-leaning MPs, Diane Abbot, Zara Sultana etc, out to “purge the left” from his party. Many of these MPs supported the self-proclaimed socialist Jeremy Corbyn, but this purge hasn’t won over any opposition.  

Rather than being seen as a soft version of the left or centrist, voters still view Labour’s core brand as higher taxes, more regulation, and a bigger state – classical leftist positions. When 67% of Britons believe the economy is headed in the wrong direction, and the majority believe that supply-side policies will fix the economy, Starmer appears out of touch. His Online Safety Act and cuts to winter fuel payments—which make it harder for people to afford rising energy bills—only reinforce that perception. 

Trust is another problem. He’s enacting policies identical to the Tories. The Online Safety Act was originally a Conservative bill drawn up in 2023, which Starmer chose to continue. This has been supported by 80% of parents, but there’s significant skepticism from the rest of the public . They are uncomfortable with giving their ID to a 3^rd party American company, and view this as government overreach.  

More strikingly, Starmer has been extremely strong on immigration and cutting the public sector budget. He’s generally accepted the conservative premise that immigration is a net negative that must be controlled.  

Despite removing the Rwanda scheme, the Tories structure is largely the same: lower net migration, stricter settlement rules, and a tougher standard for family, work, and asylum routes. In 2026, Labour described plans to extend the settlement period and make refugee status more temporary, but that has received so much backlash that Starmer is willing to ease certain restrictions. 

Furthermore, beyond winter fuel payments Starmer has adopted a Tory-style approach to public finances through welfare restraint and cuts to departmental and civil service spending, all justified as fiscal discipline. The government denies a return to Tory austerity, but when the new benefits bill will cause 950,000 people to face benefit reductions or removal by 2030, 800,000 to lose PIP, 150,000 to lose Carers’ Allowance, and 250,000 more (including 50,000 children) could be pushed into poverty  all to increase defense spending – Labour becomes eerily reminiscent of the 14 year Tory government. 

Sadly, all this accommodation to the rightwing voters isn’t enough to win over their support. In a tale of cruel irony, former Conservative Nigel Farage has won these voters over with his new Reform party - a further rightwing party - because he’s seen as an authentic right-wing figure; just looking at his political history. He’s long presented himself as against mainstream politics, evidenced by being the former leader of the UK Independence Party and being the main pusher for Brexit. Starmer, on the other hand, comes across as the establishment paying lip service to them. 

The other effect of pandering 

As Labour shifts right, it legitimizes Reform's positions. Reform presents itself as radically anti-establishment: gut the civil service to prevent government overreach, close borders to prioritize left behind native citizens, end minimum wage requirements to help business expenses and end working from home to force citizens to spend travel and expenses money to stimulate the economy. If Conservative-leaning voters still reject Starmer's Tory-like policies, Reform looks stronger by comparison. By chasing voters who won't be swayed, Labour loses its core audience, offering not change but an extension of 14 Tory years to 19. 

Losing your core audience 

As the historical party of the left, Labour should have a strong leftist base, yet they do not anymore. Labour is worried about losing ground to Reform, but what they should also consider is losing their audience to the Greens. The Greens have achieved several milestones this year. Zack Polanski, elected as party leader in September 2025, has seen membership rise from 70,000 to over 170,000. They have also increased exponentially in polling and favorability, the highest they’ve ever been.  

Polanski has won over the youth and satisfied leftist voters because of his eco-populist stance. He’s not only against the current Labour government, but the state of UK politics in general. The Greens have taken extreme stances such as changing the electoral system to proportional representation, a strong progressive tax on multimillionaires and billionaires, massive increase in workers' rights from the worker’s perspective, and welfare for the poorest in society, and a distinct shift in foreign policy to decrease military spending and dismantle the UK’s nuclear weapons. 

For the first time they appear as a national threat in Parliament. Historic wins in the both the Gorton and Denton and the Cliftonville by-elections, and potentially many more wins in future London elections, means that Polanski is on course to have the most members in Parliament in Green history. 

If there is a group Labour must appeal to, it’s the leftwing base that historically supported them. The rise of both Reform and the Greens signal that the public wants urgent change, Starmer needs to follow it. After 14 years of Tory rule, more rightwing policies do not signal change. 

Balancing pandering and authenticity 

It is a difficult task. It’s necessary to win over voters from other sides, but also not betray your core audience. So what can Starmer do? He isn’t seen as authentically right-or left-wing to voters, but a centrist neglecting one side to get the approval from the other. 

To regain voter confidence,  Labour needs to go back to its roots, building a simple image of redistribution for the majority of society - the workers - if they want to avoid the fate of the centrist party. Labour’s identity works best when it is about power used for ordinary people, not constant position-taking in a left-right media contest. The party originated in post-World War 2 and focused on immediately improving the quality of life for workers. They created the NHS, nationalized key industries – railways, energy utilities and the Bank of England – that citizens use daily, so that they served the public rather than make private profit. Labour has shifted with economic conditions, but it has usually struggled when it lost a coherent story about who it represents and what government is for. 

Labour must deliver visible and immediate wins for workers by aggressively enforcing the Employment Rights Bill and tying it to lower energy bills and housing costs. Most importantly, Labour needs to regain authenticity. It’s time they stop attacking the left while mimicking Tory policies and instead pick a consistent ideological lane: the centre-left. After 14 years of Conservative governance and 5 Prime Ministers, the public no longer wants typical conservative policies. If Labour offers more of the same dressed in red, both Reform and the Greens will keep eating its vote.

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