The Prime Minister often evokes the idea that the government is for ‘working people’. He has to explain, therefore, why so many workers have moved away from Labour during his time in office. The truth, of course, is that the world of work has deteriorated rapidly for millions, and that the government is failing to repair the situation.

In fact, the country has fallen into a deep malaise, which is multifaceted — political, social, and cultural — but has its roots in the deeply dysfunctional structures of our economy. However, it is ultimately an unresolved crisis because the British governing class is (to put it gently) useless. Its myopia is legendary. Short-sighted and unable to see the roots of the crisis or the alternative paths that might be taken, it also lacks the courage needed to break with a failing economic settlement which only really works for the City of London — and perhaps the arms industry.

The Bank of England, no less, published a think piece this summer about ‘muddling on through’, reflecting on fiscal policymaking in the UK. But it might well be argued that muddling through is a trait of the British ruling class, whose intellectual life normally involves avoiding any attempt to understand the historical moment. They tend to avoid challenges, if possible, but then finally confront them with unplanned temporary solutions rather than with a strategic approach.

Thus it is with the Labour government. Take the current Labour deputy leadership contest. Elections are meant to offer a choice. Candidates ought to offer different points of view, so that voters can express their preferences. This is especially important when there is a huge amount at stake. In the current deputy leadership election, there is indeed a lot at stake. This is because the Labour government has lost its way. Languishing in the polls and lacking a clear narrative about Britain’s future, we are facing an existential crisis.

And yet, we have before us a pair of candidates who are products of the status quo. Rather than muddling on, the election of a new deputy leader ought to offer the opportunity for a wider debate about the country’s profound and multiple crises, and the government’s overall direction of travel.

We will see how the election develops, but it looks like it will be uninspiring. We ought to begin any discussion about this matter by frankly acknowledging that the party hierarchy deliberately engineered the whole process to ensure that only advocates of the status quo could get on the ballot paper. Remember that they changed the rules back in 2021, such that to get on the ballot paper, a candidate had to obtain 20 percent of Labour MPs to nominate them. The timetable for the current contest is so tight that it is impossible for ordinary members of the party and the unions to express their views to their MPs. And in any event, continued sanctions against the Left have led to the suspension of several radical MPs, who are now unable to nominate their preferred candidate.

The way in which the voices of a large section of our movement have been sidelined is a disgrace. After all, from the beginning, the Labour movement contained many radicals who sought to confront the worst excesses of British capitalism — or else replace it with a socialist commonwealth. Now, we have no candidate for the deputy leadership who can speak for this historically important tendency.

It’s not simply that we need to respect our own history. Much more importantly, the moment we live in calls for transformative solutions. On Wednesday, I told the Prime Minister that he needs to drop the failed economic orthodoxy, which is doing so much damage to the country’s economic, political, and social fabric. I also asked him what he thought of the fact that for every 20 people in my constituency looking for a job, there is only one vacancy. He failed to give a satisfactory response.

There are 1.67 million unemployed people in Britain today, but there are only 718,000 job vacancies. In my area, West Yorkshire, there are already 10 unemployed people chasing every vacancy. Poverty is on the rise, the food banks are under pressure, low wages are everywhere, infrastructure is too often crumbling, and productivity is desperately low. Meanwhile, the government has left millions feeling unrepresented. Hard right extremism is out and making hay, and the government thinks that the most important political task at hand is to shadow Farage.

Clearly, there are people in the shadows of power who thought they were being smart by eliminating socialist candidates from the deputy leadership contest. Even now, they are quietly celebrating, gloating about how clever they think they are. But it’s not clever to use rule manipulation to avoid the truth. Stifling debate does not make the government or the party better. It reduces the space for proper analysis and constructive criticism. So although they can manipulate the rules for the advantage of their faction, they cannot suppress the facts of British capitalism’s social and economic decay. Nor can they suppress the voices of those who argue for transformational change. It’s time for the Labour Left to engage both intellectually and organisationally.