The future action programme of Starmer relied on the outcome of the election results. After suspension of Jeremy, the inner party struggle has intensified to such an extent that it has endangered the very existence of the party. The latest face-off between the party’s factions after Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension last month has acquired the worst character.

Influential voices on either side of the party’s divide claimed victory on the party’s ruling body, with Corbyn critic Luke Akehurst coming first place in the constituency Labour party (CLP) vote, the former MP and Momentum, the party forum supporting Jeremy, pick Laura Pidcock won the second highest number of votes in the same race.

With the candidates from the party’s left doing better than some expected, it is expected that the group led by Keir Starmer would maintain some kind of restraint. With the results giving Keir the solid majority on the NEC, he has the challenging task to transform Labour and win the next election.

Significantly the Momentum responded to the results by tweeting: “These results are a huge victory for the socialist left. Grassroots Voice is by far the single largest slate in the members’ section of the NEC. Members want Labour to back a transformative, socialist programme – and that is exactly what these representatives will fight for.”

MPs on the party’s left saw the victory of the faction’s Grassroots Voice slate as a vindication of Corbyn’s political vision, with Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, writing on Twitter: “Winning the overwhelming majority of positions, it’s clear the left is a significant part of the party. That needs to be respected, starting with Jeremy’s reinstatement to the party.” Richard Burgon, the MP for East Leeds, expressed a similar sentiment, urging that “Corbyn should be reinstated and we must unite to fight the Tories”.

Starmer has also decided to act against the members who had decided to quit after suspension of Jeremy. The election followed controversy earlier in the week when concerns were raised that the votes of those who had quit the party in reaction to Corbyn’s suspension would be discounted. The party clarified that all votes would be counted, as long as members who have resigned cast their ballots before quitting.

The Left labour leaders were in a hostile mood on Starmer’s refusal to restore the Labour whip to Corbyn after he was reinstated by the party’s national executive committee. After this action it has become clear that the supporters of Jeremy would take revenge. In a broader backdrop this crisis in the Labour party underlines something about problems with the nature of British democracy that are only becoming more pronounced as the 21st century advances.

The Labour party has undergone many convulsions in its 120-year history, and each time the right wing labour leaders were responsible for the creation of the crisis. The recent suspension of Corbyn from the Labour party left many supporters feeling distraught and betrayed. Those on the left of the party didn’t believe the suspension was merely because of his response to the recent EHRC report. Rather, they saw it as the latest in a series of factional and rhetorical manoeuvres by Keir Starmer and Labour’s right wing, aimed at marginalising the left within the party.

Labour members have now had six months to assess what a Starmer leadership means. And the results are conclusive: a sharp right-ward turn; the jettisoning of any radical demands; and the abandonment of class politics in favour of flag-waving ‘patriotism’. Demoralised by last year’s general election defeat, and absence of a clear direction from the left leaders, many Corbyn supporters had lent their votes to Starmer, responding to his calls for ‘unity’. But illusions have by now been shattered. The insiders claim that Starmer’s mask of ‘unity’ has been stripped away, revealing the ugly face of Blairism underneath, it is clear that this is a straight up fight between the left and right. Rank-and-file members will not be fooled again by ‘Sir’ Starmer’s lip-service to socialism, nor by his hollow rhetoric and vacuous promises.

The task now is to ensure that this potential strength is fully utilised, in order to secure a sweeping victory for the left. And this can only be done by enthusing members with the promise of bold socialist change. The Left was sure of making a clean sweep, but it was sabotaged behind the façade of a procedural change brought in by the current NEC, which is balanced in favour of the right wing. Faced with a left-dominated NEC, youth wing, and array of local Labour parties, it is the right wing who could find themselves in retreat or risk losing in a bitter struggle against an emboldened left opposition.

A general feeling has gripped the labour leaders that it was imperative to organise activists politically against the right wing, around a militant strategy and a bold socialist programme. This means having union leaders who are not afraid of rocking the boat or clashing with the Labour right.

Meanwhile the National Labour NEC vote reveals huge drop in party membership since Starmer's election. He has been facing several issues as he tried to unite his party. It has lost over 50,000 members since Starmer became leader, according to the party’s election records. In the NEC election, 495,961 members of the party were listed as eligible to vote. At the time of Starmer’s election as the leader there were 552,835 registered Labour party members. His implies party has lost 56,874 members since April.

Labour Party members have started demanding reinstatement of Jeremy. The party MP Diane Abbott questioned yesterday whether Starmer would ever have been elected Labour leader if members knew how he would act against his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. She condemned Starmer's decision to leave Corbyn in limbo as ‘no way to unite the party’. On Wednesday, Sir Keir had blocked Corbyn from sitting as a Labour MP despite the latter’s re-instatement as a party member by Labour’s national executive committee (NEC). Members quitting the party is owed to the mercy handling of Jeremy issue by Starmer. Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite — Labour’s biggest donor — said the refusal to restore the whip to Mr Corbyn was “vindictive and vengeful” as he urged Sir Keir to “pull back from the brink.” He added: “It very much looks like a witchhunt and persecution of a decent man.”

The Communist Party’s political committee urged socialists and trade unionists to “rise to the challenge thrown down by Starmer and his hand-picked Labour general secretary David Evans to purge their party of socialist influence.” Meanwhile Momentum has launched a petition calling for the whip to be restored to Corbyn, which received over 1,000 signatures in the first few hours. It said; “The recent NEC election results show that there is a clear socialist majority amongst the membership. “They can’t remove the whip from our movement.” (IPA Service)