Keir Starmer is facing fresh pressure from Labour insiders, days after a sweeping government reshuffle, as party figures from the left and centre mobilise through a network, backed by Andy Burnham, designed to change Labour’s direction.
The network, called Mainstream, will inevitably influence Labour’s looming deputy leadership contest, with Burnham already throwing his weight behind former cabinet minister Louise Haigh as well as Lucy Powell, the former Commons leader.
Mainstream has been steered by Compass a centre-left thinktank, and Open Labour and is backed by Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor who when asked did not rule out the possibility of running in a future leadership contest with the network’s support.
But supporters include figures right across the party from Labour’s left to the centre, including Labour peers Alf Dubs and Anna Healy, Labour MPs Clive Lewis, Dawn Butler, Alex Sobel, Clive Efford, chair of the Tribune group of MPs, the former Blairite minister John Denham, and the founder of Momentum, Jon Lansman.
Burnham told the Guardian: “Mainstream speaks to the change that’s needed, a more inclusive, less factional way of running the party. That is right anyway, but it’s really right for the times we’re in now.
“We’ve got to get beyond this culture where everything’s a threat. If people are speaking out, it can actually be an opportunity to make changes.
“Labour’s always been factional but it’s become more so in recent times than I can remember in almost 40 years in the party. You don’t win through a factional approach. You win through a broader approach.”
Its founders say it is designed to be the “home for Labour’s radical realists”, promising to provide a space for members to discuss vision, policy and electoral strategy. They also aim to campaign in constituency Labour parties (CLPs) and across the country for what they describe as bold but practical reforms.
At the same time its Labour members are preparing to put a child poverty motion on the conference floor calling on the prime minister to scrap the two-child benefit limit, a policy blamed for pushing hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.
The conference motion, backed by Momentum, Open Labour and Compass, floats raising £6bn through levies on banks and the online gambling industry to pay for its abolition, an idea that has been supported by the former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.
Compass’s decision to re-engage within Labour follows polling that has showed broad support for members who back wealth taxes, democratic reform and stronger action against child poverty.
Andy Burnham has thrown his weight behind former cabinet minister Louise Haigh for the Labour deputy leadership. Photograph: James Veysey/Rex/Shutterstock
Mainstream’s supporters believe the Labour government is struggling to communicate the coherent vision, policy and strategy needed to change the country. They acknowledge the huge electoral threat from the populist right in Reform UK and believe Starmer and his top team “seem lost and unprepared to develop and champion a popular left alternative”.
The network vows to become openly campaigning, unlike other networks such as the Labour-aligned Fabian thinktank, seeking to get the support of members who feel the government has been too cautious.
With Angela Rayner forced to resign after being found in breach of the ministerial code, Labour faces a deputy leadership contest. Burnham said it should not be “a running commentary on the government” but a debate about “the running of the party”.
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He suggested Haigh and Powell as figures who “represent the centre of gravity” of Labour: “I think it’s really important that people from all parts of the party are involved, but particularly those who are the heart of it all.”
Burnham has long been viewed as a possible successor to Starmer. Asked if Mainstream could become a vehicle for him to return to Westminster, he replied: “It’s about culture rather than people … it’s bigger than any one personality.”
Pressed again, he said: “I’m really happy where I am. I think what we’ve done through devolution is connect people with politics in a different way. This is intended to help the government … it’s tough being in government and Mainstream is here to help them.”
Organisers say its not a faction or a caucus, but a broad church of the party’s progressive left, stretching from the soft left through to non-aligned activists who would class themselves as centrists.
Labour figures say it would not be surprising for an organisation set up in this way to seek to propose its own candidate for the party’s upcoming deputy leadership contest, and even shape the ground for a future leadership contest.
While Starmer’s reshuffle indicated his plans to tighten his grip on his ministerial team with a focus on tackling immigration and taking on the fight to Reform UK, his party management will be tested at conference.
Mainstream organisers believe supporters are looking for a bolder offer from the government, to also avoid being outflanked by the Greens led by their new eco-populist leader Zack Polanski or the Corbyn-Sultana alliance.
Neal Lawson, chair of Compass, said: “At this moment of peril for the party, Mainstream launches as a historic alliance in Labour. Never before have the centre, soft left and hard left come together to save its heart and soul.”