Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn campaigning together during the 2019 General Election
Keir Starmer has won an overwhelming victory in the Labour leadership election and we very much hope he will pursue the anti-war policies he mentioned during the campaign. Polling shows Stop the War is one of the most popular campaigns amongst Labour members and we were disappointed foreign affairs was not given more time during the long leadership campaign. We regret too that the candidates most clearly associated with Jeremy Corbyn’s political positions, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon, were defeated.
Jeremy Corbyn had the clearest anti-war politics of any Labour leader historically and regularly restated his opposition to military interventions in office.
Keir Starmer’s selection of Lisa Nandy as Foreign Secretary, who has a mixed voting record on foreign military interventions and no particular background in foreign affairs, is disappointing.
However, anti-war opinion in the Labour Party is very strong and we look forward to continuing our work with the many Labour MPs and thousands of activists who oppose British participation in foreign wars. A growing number of party branches have recently been adopting anti-war positions and affiliating to the Stop the War Coalition.
We urge all our members and supporters in the Labour Party to continue the campaign for anti-war policies at local, regional and national levels.
This is also a moment to strengthen the anti-war movement more widely.
The vast majority of the British population oppose foreign wars, partly as a result of sustained anti-war campaigning since the start of the War on Terror. With Donald Trump in the White House and international tensions growing around the world, anti-war organisation is vitally important.