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Fortune favours the bold, goes an enduring Roman saying, and a poll for the first time putting the Greens under eco-socialist Zack Polanski ahead of cautious Keir Starmer and Labour is a wake-up call. OK, this was a single survey, yet Labour MPs and ministers have grumbled to me for months they are haemorrhaging more voters, party members too, on the Left than they are on the Right to Thatcher fan boy Nigel Farage. It’s a reason Reform UK is ahead as the most significant minority in a fragmented political system. Most of that anti-migrant mob’s support is still sucked from Kemi Badenoch’s ailing Conservatives. But Labour is simultaneously shrinking as loyalists jump to the revived Greens and another slice may hop to Jeremy Corbyn’s troubled Your Party when it’s on ballot papers. Even Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats, sitting pretty after collecting disillusioned Tory voters last year, is a minor recruiter from Labour. Starmer delivering change to materially improve lives is vital but, on its own, might not be enough, confided a thoughtful Cabinet Minister, unless the government gives people hope for the future with an appealing vision – otherwise they will pocket improved living standards and services without giving Labour any credit. The whole world isn’t going down the right-wing plug hole and Starmer, if he opened his eyes, would find -inspiration to confront and beat Farage’s divisive, fear-based politics with fairness and decency in Britain. Take left-winger Catherine Conn-olly, elected Ireland’s new president by a landslide on a strong environmental and united Ireland platform. Just last week Rob Jetten’s Dutch liberal-progressive D66 party beat Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration, anti-Islam vile Party for Freedom. And over in the US in New York a young Muslim socialist born in Uganda, Zohran Mamdani, is capturing the Big Apple’s imagination – luring Trump voters home to the Democrats – with promises to freeze rents, introduce free buses and childcare and open cheaper city-owned grocery stores. Tactical voting delivering Caerphilly in the Welsh Parliament to a Plaid Cymru pitching Left is why a Farage victory across Britain in 2029 isn’t assured – and how the Reform wobbly bandwagon could be slowed, halted and then pushed into a ditch. The number of Labour MPs who believe Starmer must be replaced is noticeably growing. A larger group are convinced the government must change course and be more radical to gain kudos even for the good it’s done and is currently doing such as raising the minimum wage, boosting job rights and saving the NHS. Polanski, not so long ago a Liberal Democrat extolling the awful ConDem austerity coalition with the Conservatives before he saw the light, is derided by most Labour MPs. But Labour could be resurrected by competing with his enthusiasm, ambition, story-telling and, yes, his boldness. Saved by an estate agent carrying the can for not obtaining a required rental licence, landlord Rachel Reeves’s potential 20% tax on rich folk quitting Britain could be a £2billion nice little earner for key public services. That the UK, unlike most other G7 wealthy nations, does not already have a “settling-up charge” on assets illustrates how, for far too long, we’ve operated a wealthfare state, feather-bedding multi-millionaires and billionaires. What could be more patriotic than well-shod members of a loaded elite paying their fair share before migrating to Dubai or another tax haven to watch Sky Sports while eating Marmite on toast in Union Jack underpants. The Chancellor isn’t short of advice ahead of November 26’s Budget – not least from the likes of me urging her to scrap the cruel two-child poverty cap and introduce a £10million-plus wealth tax. Most likely I’ll be ignored on this occasion, but surrender to the bleating rich hoarding obscene loot in mansions and she’ll be moving back into the rented out South London family home. Hugely higher costs and lengthy delays to the RAF flying US-built F-35 jets that pack less punch than was intended is why slipping tens of billions extra to the MoD will be another waste of money. The damning report from the Public Accounts Committee should slam the brakes on burning more precious resources. Defence procurement is a black hole where suppliers charge higher prices for late deliveries of inadequate equipment and throwing good money after bad will weaken not strengthen Britain when cutting international develop-ment, itself not free of criticism, is an own goal. Russia and China both know the UK slashing aid delivers them fresh allies, whereas new over-priced weapons might allow PMs to look tough but arms races are destructive. Have I Got News for You is a tough telly gig – I should know after appearing twice – so the audience laughing with (not at) engaging Sheffield red-head Louise Haigh broadcast why Labour needs her back in the Cabinet and Starmer was stupid to sack a left-wing Transport Secretary over an old minor phone case. Badenoch’s dismal failure as leader to make relevant a marginalised Tory Party outflanked by Reform leaves Kemikaze vulnerable because Tory rules now permit MPs to swap her for another dud. Here’s proof a race-hate industry is manufacturing panic over immigration, benefiting the likes of Nigel Farage and convicted thuggy fraudster Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson. Most folk name the cost of living, health and the economy as the three most important issues locally, with immigration and asylum down in the seventh spot. Ask the same people what they think are the most important issues nationally and immigration leaps to second place behind the cost of living, after being fed a daily diet of misleading “invaders” rhetoric about what is occurring elsewhere. The jump from a 26% concern locally, based on experience, to 52% nationally, fuelled by what people are told, uncovered by a YouGov poll for the Best for Britain, underlines the Herculean task at hand to stop racism going mainstream. This is a battle both for hearts and minds.
