Tom Miller

We welcome that the CAC will allow Conference the opportunity to debate ending the two-child benefit limit. Ending the two-child limit is the single biggest action that Labour could take to reduce child poverty. Today’s news offers hope for the 4.5 million children living in poverty across the UK. This is also a win for the mainstream of the Labour Party. 84% of Labour members back the ending of the two-child limit. The CAC’s initial decision to block this motion threatened to entrench the hostility to debate and discussion that is rooting itself in our party - and undermining Labour’s offer to the country. We urge delegates to Conference to support this motion in the Priorities Ballot. The Government’s Child Poverty Strategy is doomed to fail without an end to the two-child limit. In a country as wealthy as the UK, allowing child poverty to deepen is a political choice. This is our moment to make sure Labour chooses differently.

NEW: Labour's CAC has reversed its decision to block motions on ending the two-child benefit limit.

Without an end to the two-child benefit limit, the Government's Child Poverty Strategy is doomed to fail.

A statement from Mainstream's Interim Council below👇

Results of polling initiated by Compass: - 92% of Labour Party members support the public ownership of essential utilities. - 91% support taxing the wealth of the richest in our society. - 84% support an end to the two-child benefit limit.

There's overwhelming support amongst Labour's membership for a more radical offer on democracy, the economy, child poverty & more.

We believe the voices of radical realists, the vast majority of the Labour Party, must be heard and heeded.

Join us: mainstreamlabour.org/get-involved

About | Mainstream Labour Mainstream is the home for Labour’s radical realists - united by values, driven by change

Mainstream is serious about winning a democratic socialist future.

We stand for:
⚡ Redistributing power and wealth
⚡ Defending rights and dignity at home & abroad
⚡ Creating a new political economy
..and much more.

Our platform and our plan: www.mainstreamlabour.org/about

All governments are imperfect but they are NOT "all the same".

The lazy trope that "it doesn't matter who you vote for" isn't just false; it feeds the nihilism on which the radical right prey.

It's like a burning tyre, coating everything in acrid smoke, choking off any meaningful democratic choice

The Brexit realignment amid electoral volatility: The role of party blocs in the 2024 General Election Abstract. Brexit accelerated the long-term realignment of how demographic groups vote in Britain. However, Europe is no longer salient to voters, support f

🚨NEW PUBLICATION 🚨

Though people have moved on from Brexit, they still vote in line with their Brexit preferences - with age/education still separating voters.

Voters now back party blocs, which matters greatly for Labour's current appeals to Reform voters.

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academic.oup.com/pa/advance-a...

"Our £5bn disability benefits cut will stop welfare state collapsing, says Kendall"

Social security has been collapsing for years. This accelerates the trend and supports the politics.

A lot of things in politics make me think of this song m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxd2...

So the strategy of trying to out-Farage Farage on immigration is going about as well as expected

It's a disaster that they haven't fallen to zero, or close to that.

Congrats on taking this up! Best journal currently available on the left IMO, so no small task. Best of luck to all of you!

Slot machine firms target UK’s poorest areas and channel funds to billionaires Exclusive: Politicians including Andy Burnham call for councils to be given powers to stop new sites opening

We need serious changes on this, and we need them yesterday. Quick win for the government, if they want it. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Huge amount of this immigration stuff is hyperbole. I think the concentration should be on how we integrate people and get public services to work. In the meantime though, this is instructive and shows how the political context is set.

Always good to find others rejecting instrumentalism on this. It's more of a principle issue. The public should get what it votes for, and we should be ourselves accountable for how that results.

If it's hurting (them), it's working.

Indeed.

Reform UK’s new councillor for Redditch South, Worcestershire.

Sue Eacock

What’s her first priority going to be?

Maybe reducing the number of Black people on TV.

Or cancel the ‘gay parades’.

Or ban the Muslim ‘ideology’ from your Christian country.

That’s what you’ve voted for #Worcestershire.

British people made huge sacrifices and many paid the ultimate price for freedom in this country, and freedom in Europe.

It showed the best of us and the lessons learned should never be forgotten.

Here's to freedom and democracy. Happy #VEDay80 #VEDay ! 🇬🇧

Labour is Learning the Wrong Lessons Centre-left incumbents are staying in power by aggressively pushing back on populists, not by aping them

New post from me about the elections of the last week, where the 'peak populism' hypothesis stands, and what lessons the Labour Party should be drawing. 1/n

benansell.substack.com/p/labour-is-...

This is a sign of government not being able to deliver what people support and want.

When we published the 'fiscal rules', those on the right of the party told me, to paraphrase, that members should blind faith it. Power first, policy later.

Well, this is what happens without brave electioneering.

Good thread, and the quoted thread is really good too. Some useful bits on Farage and his base in there.

What an amazingly divided ward. Don't see his much!

Numbers suggest that the biggest 🇦🇺 Labor win in decades now delivered by a PM from the left faction.

ALP left is way more collegiate than UK Lab traditional left; party relationships are better, and formalised.

Still - this should be food for thought for our members and MPs. 👊

Excellent news.

Reform Amateur Hour begins.

Having been on the Executive of a local authority I can confirm it is extremely hard work and extremely long hours.

There’s going to be so much whining when the wake-up call hits.

'Morally fraudulent' gambling 'loophole' used again in North London A local councillor has called the plan to open another adult gaming centre an 'insult to the integrity' of the Planning Committee

Good to get a bit of coverage for some proper local government stuff. Read more here: www.mylondon.news/news/north-l...

This stuff is all going to end up being about unions in the tech and engineering sectors.

Been thinking this a lot recently, yeah!

We need to develop an understanding of why this is the case.

I completely lack one, right now. Might also be true more widely.

Great point. I wanna read about this somewhere. At pretty much every juncture, the liberally inclined bits of the socialist movement are correct in their predictions, and the dirtbags are wrong.

Nobody seems aware or admits it, and it doesn't translate into credibility. Why?

The idea that new oil & gas fields are a key lever for economic dynamism in the UK is completely at odds with the reality of the North Sea basin's inexorably declining contribution to the UK's economic & energy security--not to mention the costs of escalating climate change. Some thoughts:
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