Skip to main content
The coronavirus crisis: where is the British left?
The invasion of Iraq provoked the Stop The War movement and nuclear weapons created CND — so where is the left-wing response to the Tories’ appalling handling of Covid-19 now that 40,000 have died, asks IAN SINCLAIR

FROM mid-April onwards the government came under intense pressure to start lifting the lockdown it had imposed on March 23.

A relatively early loosening of restrictions was supported by business groups and their cheerleaders in the right-wing press and the Cabinet (Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Priti Patel and perhaps Michael Gove too).

Pressure was also applied by the leaders of the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Selling us out: Keir Starmer signs a deal with Donald Trump
Features / 8 July 2026
8 July 2026

CLAUDIA WEBBE says the horrific price British patients will pay for this NHS deal is now clear — and there’s time to get out of it, if MPs will only force the issue

Union members and climate activists drop banner on Brighton Beach in response to government inaction on extreme UK temperatures. Photography Léo Bodelle
Climate Breakdown / 8 July 2026
8 July 2026

Unions and climate activists pressure government to consider legislation for maximum working temperature

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump during a press conference at Chequers, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, on day two of the president's second state visit to the UK, September 18, 2025
Features / 19 March 2026
19 March 2026

The media present Starmer as staying out of Trump’s war — but we’re already deeply involved in a conflict that sees the US and Israel kill civilians on a huge scale, argues IAN SINCLAIR

Home Office of Border Force officers process small boat migrants detained, under the UK's new ‘one in, one out’ deal with France, at the Manston Immigration Processing Centre in Kent before relocation to the Immigration Removal Centre to await their return to France, August 7 2025
Features / 6 September 2025
6 September 2025

DIANE ABBOTT exposes the misconceptions, rumours and downright lies perpetrated around immigration issues