Last month, Unite union leader Sharon Graham and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer found themselves in a war of words. The spat was a consequence of Coventry’s Labour-led city council failing to acquiesce to the demands of striking workers. In defense of truck drivers fighting for improved pay, Graham decried the council leadership’s actions in the ongoing strike, labeling them “incompetent.” Unite has accused Coventry Labour of ignoring the plight of workers employed by the local authority by failing to attend negotiation meetings and distributing anti-strike leaflets displaying false information about the strikers’ pay.

Labour’s actions in Coventry are indefensible. The rightward turn led by Starmer is not, however, new. It is a return to a conservative tradition that was dominant throughout much of the pre-Corbyn years.