The soft left, also known as the open left, inside left and historically as the Tribunite left, is a faction within the British Labour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left, represented by former leader Michael Foot, from the hard left, represented by Tony Benn. People belonging to the soft left may be called soft leftists or Tribunites.
The International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency was an international Marxist group based in France led by Michel Pablo, also known as Michael Raptis, the former secretary of the Trotskyist Fourth International. It resulted as a regroupment of activists expelled from the Fourth International over their opposition to the 1962 re-unification process with the so-called "International Committee of the Fourth International"(ICFI) which had split from the Fourth International in 1953 over the question of entrism sui generis, a form of entryism which involved eschewing overt organisation building efforts in favour of long term participation in social democratic and communist parties. The re-unification process was rushed while Pablo was imprisoned in the Netherlands for illegal activities in support of the Algerian revolution.
The Socialist Society was founded in 1981 by a group of British socialists, including Raymond Williams and Ralph Miliband, who founded it as an organisation devoted to socialist education and research, linking the left of the British Labour Party with socialists outside it. The Society grew out of the New Left Review (NLR) and many of its active members were involved in the NLR: Robin Blackburn, Tariq Ali, Michèle Barrett, Michael Rustin and Hilary Wainwright. Other active and prominent members of the Society included Richard Kuper, John Palmer, John Williams and Barney Dickson. The Society published a magazine and a series of pamphlets.
Liz Davies KC is a British barrister, author and political activist who advocates socialist feminism. She is the daughter of the Oxford academic and historian of Tudor England, C. S. L. Davies.
SirKeir Rodney Starmer is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, and was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
The leader of the Labour Party is the highest position within the United Kingdom's Labour Party. The current holder of the position is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, who was elected to the position on 4 April 2020, following his victory in the party's leadership election.
The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. The party has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. It is one of two dominant political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Conservative Party. The party has been led by Keir Starmer since 2020, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in July 2024. Since the 2024 general election, the Labour Party has been the governing party of the United Kingdom and the largest political party in the House of Commons, followed by the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. As of 2024, there have been seven Labour prime ministers and fourteen Labour ministries. The party traditionally holds the annual Labour Party Conference during party conference season, at which debates and voting take place, and senior Labour figures promote party policy.
Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington is a British politician and life peer who has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 2010 to 2019.
Roy Francis Kennedy, Baron Kennedy of Southwark, is a British politician and life peer serving as Chief Whip of the House of Lords since 2024. He is a member of the Labour and Co-operative Parties.
Young Labour is the youth section of the UK Labour Party. Membership is automatic for Labour Party members aged 14 to 26.
Angela Rayner is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2024. She has been Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. Ideologically she identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.
Richard Burgon is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 to 2020. A Labour Party MP, on 23 July 2024 he had the whip withdrawn and was suspended from the party for six months as a result of voting for a Scottish National Party amendment to scrap the two child benefit cap. He now sits as an Independent MP until the whip is re-established, subject to a review.
Make Votes Matter is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns for replacing the first-past-the-post voting system with one of proportional representation for elections to the British House of Commons.
The Labour Movement for Europe (LME) is one of 20 "socialist societies" affiliated to the UK Labour Party, just like the Fabians and The Jewish Labour Movement.
Samuel Peter Tarry is a British former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South from 2019 until 2024. He was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus. On 10 October 2022 he was deselected by the Ilford South Constituency Labour Party as its candidate for the next general election.
Keir Starmer assumed the position of Leader of the Opposition after being elected as leader of the Labour Party on 4 April 2020; the election was triggered by Jeremy Corbyn's resignation following the Labour Party's electoral defeat at the 2019 general election when Boris Johnson formed a majority Conservative government. Starmer appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 5 and 6 April. He reshuffled his Shadow Cabinet five times: in June 2020, May 2021, June 2021, November 2021 and 2023.
The political positions of Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020, have frequently changed. Views of his political philosophy are diverse.
The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right is a 2022 book by British journalist Oliver Eagleton, published by Verso Books. It is a political biography of British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, and follows his time in the Crown Prosecution Service and Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn, his predecessor, covering his political alliances, his victory in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, and subsequent leadership of the Labour Party.
Gerald David Shamash, Baron Shamash is a British lawyer and life peer. He has acted as a solicitor for the Labour Party since 1990 and was appointed a member of the House of Lords in 2024.
