The 'Morgan Tendency': great for ruling the party, terrible for governing the country
Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions, September 2025 (Credit: House of Commons / PA Images)
3 min read
Why is the tiny clique at the top of Labour so brilliant at ruling the party but so terrible at running the country? This is the conundrum the growing crisis of government is revealing.
But the answer is there in the first sentence. People skilled in the art of internal party battles, motivated and incentivised to win control of the party, have none of the skills or culture to run a country. This, briefly, is their story and the terrifying consequences of it.
In the midst of the early years, and the seemingly total and endless domination of the party by the Corbynites, a small band of Labour’s resolute right-wing activists and just a couple of funders dedicated themselves, against all the odds, to win back control of ‘their’ party. They would do so by any means. Their goal was not merely the leadership of Labour but the total eradication of everyone and everything to their left. In their eyes, this was the only way to ensure anything so abhorrent to them as Corbynism could ever happen again.
You can’t bully a society like you can a backbench MP
Astonishingly, they did it. Through iron discipline, focus, cynicism and money they tricked the party into backing a candidate who acted out the part of a Corbynite before the ballots were counted, and then turned on Corbyn and the rest of the party the second they had won.
All parties have contesting factions, but the ‘Morgan Tendency’ is on a different level. It represents a new brand of hyper-factionalism, where every decision of government, of personnel and policy is judged not by what is best for the country, but through the lens of their control of the party. Does this promotion or that demotion boost their influence? Does this policy or that initiative distance them from the left and in so doing encourage more activists to leave the party so that they further cement their position?
While it was about winning the election and getting the government off to a good start, many in the party and the media were willing to overlook the obvious and fundamental weakness of what was happening. But now, inevitably, the total lack of diversity of voices and pluralism is playing out in the government to the detriment of the country. Because you can’t coerce a country like you can party. You can’t expel voters like you can members. You can't use patronage to punish or promote a nation like you can an aspiring candidate. You can’t bully a society like you can a backbench MP.
And you can't run a country in such a lopsided manner, with such a narrow and brittle approach in which there is no room for criticism, feedback or learning. No voices for the greater good or the long term, just cold and calculated decisions in the interests of a tiny sect of people hell bent on nothing but themselves.
The cuckoos are in the nest, not just of Labour but of the country. And the only person who will benefit from it is Nigel Farage. For the sake of Labour, of progressive politics in our country, this must end. Labour needs be returned to being a party that respects and benefits all voices. Starmer said he would put country before party. The awful truth, and why the government is failing so badly, is the reality of faction before party, before country.
Neal Lawson is director of Compass and a member of Mainstream’s Interim Council
