The Conservative party may be sliding into the abyss, as Sir Keir Starmer suggests, but Labour would be foolish to imagine that it is insulated from the same fate. Labour’s polling plummet since the 2024 general election is the worst for any government since 1983. In cutting current spending on benefits while promising future capital investment, Sir Keir risks alienating the very voters he needs to keep.

The foundations of Britain’s two-party system are eroding. The Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, the Greens and nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales are looking to gain. Some say the Tories now face an existential crisis like the one that saw the Liberals overtaken by Labour in the 1920s. That split happened on the left. The Conservatives should not be surprised to see it repeated on the right – with Reform poised to usurp them.

Margaret Thatcher thought the Labour party would never die. Her logic was that the trade unions wouldn’t let it. But that support is weaker and has been radically reshaped. White-collar trade........

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