IT has not taken long for this government to show its true colours. The Queen’s Speech and accompanying first few weeks of Parliamentary business from Boris Johnson’s government show two things very clearly.

Firstly, it has starkly illustrated how this government has a right-wing, divisive and reactionary agenda across the board.
Secondly, it also shows how concerned the Tories are about the potential for mass resistance to this agenda, which means they are seeking to neutralise or weaken the potential space for any such possible resistance in advance.

One clear example this week was the indefensible decision to list Extinction Rebellion (XR) as an extremist group, a decision that strikes at our very right to protest.

Specifically, XR’s beliefs are being placed on the list of ideologies that warrant reporting someone to the failed Prevent programme.

Daine Abbott welcomed by XR protesters in Parliament Square

Of course, the government itself is fully aware that there is a world of difference between a genuine security or terrorist threat, and the simple inconvenience caused by people such as XR supporters legally and peacefully protesting in order to highlight the climate emergency. It is clearly an attempt to clamp down on legitimate protest.

We have also seen the government quickly act to initiate restrictions on the right to strike in the transport sector. In the trade-union movement there is little doubt that this is the thin end of the wedge in terms of further attacks on the rights of working people to organise.

This is especially the case when we consider new employment legislation is also said to be in the pipeline.

The government is already restricting people’s right to protest and organise, with a targeted removal of the rights of union and protestors against its policies. More can be expected along these lines.

In terms of policy, as soon as they were in office Boris Johnson decided to scrap protection for workers’ rights and the environment, using the cover of Brexit.

Specifically, the government has been clear that employment rights derived from the European Union — including in important areas as working time, holiday pay, maternity and paternity rights, and much more besides — will be moved over to a new Employment Bill rather than included in the Withdrawal Agreement.

As John McDonnell has said, these moves are a clear “sign of things to come from a government that will sacrifice our basic rights and certainty for business at the altar of turning Britain into a Trump-supporting tax haven.” This is the Americanisation of British society and the Americanisation of workers’ rights as part of the alliance with Trump.

This is consistent with an increasing number of broken promises from the Tories when it comes to protecting and investing in our public services. There are not 40 new hospitals and there will not be 50,000 new nurses.

We have seen a shoddy and shameful betrayal from the government when it comes to our obligations to child refugees.
This took the form of the Tories deleting from their own Withdrawal Agreement the promise of family reunion for unaccompanied children. The right to family reunion is something which Amnesty International and others have pointed out is a fundamental human right, but this doesn’t seem to bother Boris Johnson.

When the bankers and financiers crashed our economy — with the free-market economics their political representatives in the Tory Party espoused deeply failing our communities — the right-wing media and the Tories blamed migrants.

Now, when the Tories break their promises and fail voters in the months and years ahead, we can be sure that migrants will be scapegoated again.

Ending the rights of child refugees and breaking up families is also straight out of the Trump playbook.

Politicians have a choice in such a situation.

We can either take on the rigged system and fight the politics of reaction on all fronts, as Labour has sought to do in recent years.
Or politicians can create scapegoats out of migrants and other vulnerable communities, as the Tories have done here, and the likes of Trump in the US and Bolsonaro in Brazil have done internationally.

I am clear that Labour must take the first approach, as part of continuing to fight for a just society. The fight for the many, not the few goes on.

We must also keep clearly exposing the government for what it is — a government for, and of, the privileged elite.

Moving forward then, Labour will need to hold the government to account for its disastrous economic record, to fight against all the terrible consequences of the Trump/Johnson Brexit and for a better society for all. We must maintain the Corbyn approach to internationalism: whoever becomes the next leader of our party must commit to no more disastrous wars.

In the months and years ahead, Labour and its new leadership will have to stand up to all of the Johnson attacks that are in the pipeline, standing alongside communities, trade unions, climate change campaigners and everyone else resisting the Tories’ reactionary agenda.

You can follow Diane at twitter.com/HackneyAbbott and facebook.com/DianeAbbott