We Deserve Better

We Deserve Better (Lobby group)

We Deserve Better (WDB) is a British political activist group formed on 8 March 2024 to oppose the Starmer-led Labour Party and support “socialist candidates”, regardless of party affiliation, by introducing “transformative policies” including “taxing the rich to fund public services, backing public ownership, tackling the climate crisis and opposing war crimes in Gaza”.

While the group acknowledges that might mean supporting “socialist” Labour MPs in some areas, WDB also specifically says it will campaign against two members of the shadow cabinet, namely Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol Central and Wes Streeting in Ilford North by backing Green candidate Carla Denyer and British-Palestinian Independent candidate Leanne Mohamad respectively.

Membership

On 21 March 2024, left-wing activist and Guardian columnist Owen Jones announced he was leaving the Labour Party and joining WDB.

Owen Jones thus became WDB's most high-profile supporter, but the group says it has a committee of three members: Fatima-Zahra Ibrahim, a senior figure in the Green New Deal Rising group, British-Palestinian journalist Hamza Ali Shah, and Amna Abdullatif, an independent councillor in Manchester. The latter quit the Labour Party in October 2023r after she claimed Keir Starmer had “effectively endorsed a war crime” in comments he made to LBC.

Nine left-wing MPs

Following the UK/General election/2024 on July 4, WDB wrote:

Against all the odds, 9 left-wing MPs have been elected: 4 Green MPs, Jeremy Corbyn and 4 other pro-Palestine Independent MPs.

Many were despairing about this election and feeling politically homeless, but our movement has helped turn it all around. By voting for socialist, pro-Palestinian candidates, voters have sent a clear message on Gaza, the climate and on austerity, privatisation and inequality.

Starmer’s Labour has won fewer votes in this election than Labour won under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 and 3 million fewer votes than Corbyn won in 2017. Labour has won the election by default because of the collapse in the Tories’ vote, not because of enthusiasm for Starmer or his Tory-lite policies. They’re taking power as the most unpopular incoming Government in UK political history, with the lowest vote share won by any single party majority government.

Drawing up key target seats

WDB continued:

It’s unprecedented for an opposition party entering government to have several of its leading politicians unseated, and to actively be losing votes across the country. Two Labour Shadow Cabinet members have been unseated - Thangam Debbonaire and Jonathan Ashworth - and we came within 500 odd votes of unseating Wes Streeting and electing Leanne Mohamad.

We’re the underdogs in our First Past The Post system and, previously, there was only 1 Green MP and independent candidates were almost never elected outside of by-elections. Independents and Greens were at a further disadvantage in this snap election because they had less time to set up their campaigns.

Faiza Shaheen won only 79 votes less than Labour’s candidate who was parachuted in after Starmer purged Faiza as the Labour candidate.

In many seats, Labour just held on but haemorrhaged votes such as in Bethnal Green and Stepney, where Labour’s Rushanara Ali lost about 16,000 votes. This is the kind of seat we can win at the next election if we start organising now.

We’re drawing up key target seats based on the 2024 election results. If we don’t act, we’re showing Labour they can ignore us and continue to lurch further to the right without any accountability.

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