No 10’s strong statement is welcome change for many in the party amid growing agitation over ‘progressive emergency’
If there is a cause that could be said to unite almost all Labour MPs and members from left to right, it would be equality and anti-racism. Many of them will have spent their early political lives in trade unions, student movements or charities – or working as human rights lawyers.
Over the summer, MPs have agonised about their political futures and that of progressive politics. Missteps on the economy, welfare, Gaza and relations with the parliamentary party have been part of that.
But what has crystallised the sense of crisis for many has been the rapid rise in far-right rhetoric and violence, as well as Nigel Farage’s perma-presence in the media and his plans for mass deportations.
“It is a progressive emergency,” one MP said. “We are at a moment in history where our kids might ask us: ‘What did you do?’”
