Skip to main content
What lies beyond Labour’s red wall?
PAUL LEFLEY probes a new book by Keir Starmer’s recently appointed director of strategy for an insight into the thinking of post-Corbyn Labour

DEBORAH MATTINSON’s book Beyond the Red Wall studies three areas lost to the Tories in 2019 — Darlington, Hyndburn and Stoke-on-Trent.  

That the author is Keir Starmer’s recently appointed director of strategy and that her book covers matters vital to the Labour Party and the left makes this an important read. Beyond the Red Wall has two key strands.

One is the privations of these areas compared with the rest of the country and the dire need for “levelling up.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A general view of Gorton, Greater Manchester
Britain / 25 February 2026
25 February 2026

By-election poll puts Starmer's future on a knife-edge

Durham Miners’ Gala 2025
Durham Miners’ Gala 2025 / 12 June 2025
12 June 2025

The Gala’s core message of working-class solidarity offers renewed hope and provides the antidote to the anti-worker policies of Reform UK, argues IAN LAVERY MP

Green Party Deputy Leader Zack Polanski AM speaking at the People's Assembly Against Austerity protest in central London. Picture date: Saturday June 7, 2025
Opinion / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

Sixty Red-Green seats in a hung parliament could force Labour to choose between the death of centrism or accommodation with the left — but only if enough of us join the Greens by July 31 and support Zack Polanski’s leadership, writes JAMES MEADWAY

Re your message in #nujchapel:  If we website looks like shit, no-one is going to take us seriously, or be inclined to subscribe - that's why I think we have to prioritise the way it looks, especially when the site (editorial-wise) is largely working.  When it comes to the issues you mentioned to me the other day (word count, curly quotes, bylines), there are quick and easy work arounds for them (copy and paste text into BBedit, Word, Pages, wordcount.com, etc. Leave curly quotes, bylines, etc to the web de
Democracy / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT