The end of corruption must be the beginning of transformation

After 14 years, today marks the end of one of the most incompetent, dishonest and corrupt governments in the history of the United Kingdom. 

Friends of people in Britain should rejoice. 

In addition to massive damage to the social fabric of the country and in the prospects and living conditions of millions of its inhabitants, the Conservative government has done unprecedented damage to the relations of the UK with other European countries and people and the trustworthiness of the UK on the international stage. 

As the new Labour government sets about addressing the social crisis, it must also urgently reestablish productive working relations with the EU, not only as the closest neighbour of the UK but as a precondition of addressing systematically many of the driving forces of social and ecological degradation and geopolitical insecurity and injustice, all of which require sustained international cooperation and coordination.

In these relations, the new UK government should show itself clearly as addressing the racist, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, anti-Roma and transphobic currents that traverse our societies across Europe, and have found electoral expression also in the United Kingdom with the entry into parliament today of the proto-fascist Reform UK party. 

In the coming period the UK will play a crucial diplomatic role between the USA and the EU. Using this position to maintain unity in supporting Ukrainians resisting imperial aggression, bringing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and reinforcing the International Criminal Court in prosecuting war crimes would represent the UK living up to the better parts of its history and contribution to the world.

We are realistic about the low-risk tendencies of the Labour leadership, and that regressive social and political views are held amongst its own ranks. Making the best of a large Labour majority will require us to continue to work with and build the power of the most internationalist parts of the Labour party in government, with newly elected independent, liberal and green MPs to put pressure through parliament, and most importantly to continue to reinforce the connections between progressive civil society in the UK and across Europe. Despite a large majority for Labour, the situation is still perilous in the United Kingdom. If the Labour party fails to adopt an agenda that transforms people’s lives, or – worse – if it continues to compromise on core values around anti-discrimination, human rights, equality and empowerment, a resentful and hateful radical right will capitalise further on the ground it has gained over the recent years. Our action is about refusing this future by transforming today.