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In British politics, the Labour left is the more left-wing faction of the Labour Party.[1][nb 1] Alongside the Labour right, it is one of the two main wings of the Labour Party. It is also one of its four main factions alongside the soft left, the old Labour right, and the New Labour right. In the British parliament, it is represented by the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour members of Parliament (MPs).
A Labour left has existed within the Labour Party since its founding. Historically, the Labour left was one of the two main factions of the party, rivalling the Labour right. In 1980, the Labour left peaked in power as left-wing Labour MP Michael Foot became party leader, marking the first time that Labour had a leader from the Labour left. After the 1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election, this traditional Labour left dissolved and split into two new factions, the soft left and the modern Labour left. While the modern Labour left remained on the left-wing of the party, the soft left moved towards the party's right-wing, now occupying the space between the Labour left and the Labour right. Foot became a part of the soft left. In 1983, he was succeeded as party leader by soft leftist Neil Kinnock, who took steps to modernise Labour by reducing the influence and power of the Labour left within the party.
In 2015, the Labour left saw a resurgence when the left-wing Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was elected as party leader. In 2020, Corbyn resigned and was succeeded by Keir Starmer, who was from the party's right. Under Starmer's leadership of the party, Corbyn has been removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party and barred from standing as a Labour MP in the 2024 United Kingdom general election; he remains a party member. Starmer has been accused of marginalising the Labour left by intervening in Labour's parliamentary selection process in favour of more centrist Labour candidates. There are no members of the Labour left in Starmer's shadow cabinet.
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