On 4 November 2025, Zohran Mamdani made electoral history in becoming New York City’s first Muslim, openly socialist mayor. Winning 50.4 per cent of the vote, Mamdani’s grassroots campaign sparks hope under the growing threat of fascism and the far right in the United States. While it seems miraculous that such a win is still even possible under the current Trump administration, the political state of the UK is no less bleak.
The current Labour government is not one that can claim to stand even on the centre-left on the political spectrum, having truly strayed far from its origins in trade union movements and being a party for the urban working class. Instead, it now cuts welfare for disabled people, abandons plans to scrap private schools’ charitable status, and refuses to scrap the two-child benefit cap keeping around 350,000 children under the poverty line, even going as far as to remove the whip from seven of its MPs in July 2024 for supporting the SNP amendment to remove the cap. The sheer hypocrisy to run a general election campaign on a ‘lesser of two evils’ ethos, only to immediately backtrack on any and all left-wing policies and lick the boots of those they only oppose in empty promises is truly shocking.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Labour MPs have once again fulfilled their opportunistic tendencies, put on their progressive costumes and played pretend when it comes to Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win, either feigning ignorance or taking on his win as their own. Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education, declared that she “[doesn’t] follow American politics especially closely” on Sky News the day after Mamdani’s win, and Wes Streeting, rather presumptuously, tweeted about the “Inspirational campaign and victory” with “Lessons for progressives the world over.”
Now, he’s not wrong. Mamdani’s win was ground-breaking in its momentum; the lessons the left can learn from this should not be quickly forgotten. However, Streeting’s mislabelling of himself as a progressive who could celebrate such a win as his own is wildly misplaced. Streeting’s own anti-trans rights politics and the Labour party’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza, refusal to create affordable housing or tax the ultra-wealthy directly oppose practically everything Mamdani ran on. From proposing rent freezes and free buses, to implementing free childcare until five years old and a 2 per cent wealth tax on those earning $1m or more annually, Mamdani’s NYC looks strikingly different to the current Labour government’s apparent disregard for any and all policies that require a backbone. Labour’s attempt to ally themselves with Mamdani is nothing short of laughable.
Now, more than ever, it is abundantly clear that Labour’s inauthenticity is not our only option. Mamdani’s win has shown that there is a tangible and real possibility of hope and legitimacy in left-wing politics. Contrasting Labour’s 57 per cent disapproval rating with the momentum of Mamdani’s volunteer army of over 100,000, it’s clear that we must make a conscious move away from fearmongering and centrist, harm reduction politics and instead opt for a decisive politics of hope in which we can assert that we do, in fact, deserve better.
“Zohran Mamdani at the Resist Fascism Rally in Bryant Park on Oct 27th 2024” by Bingjiefu He is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Labour’s attempt to associate their politics with Mamdani’s is laughable
On 4 November 2025, Zohran Mamdani made electoral history in becoming New York City’s first Muslim, openly socialist mayor. Winning 50.4 per cent of the vote, Mamdani’s grassroots campaign sparks hope under the growing threat of fascism and the far right in the United States. While it seems miraculous that such a win is still even possible under the current Trump administration, the political state of the UK is no less bleak.
The current Labour government is not one that can claim to stand even on the centre-left on the political spectrum, having truly strayed far from its origins in trade union movements and being a party for the urban working class. Instead, it now cuts welfare for disabled people, abandons plans to scrap private schools’ charitable status, and refuses to scrap the two-child benefit cap keeping around 350,000 children under the poverty line, even going as far as to remove the whip from seven of its MPs in July 2024 for supporting the SNP amendment to remove the cap. The sheer hypocrisy to run a general election campaign on a ‘lesser of two evils’ ethos, only to immediately backtrack on any and all left-wing policies and lick the boots of those they only oppose in empty promises is truly shocking.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Labour MPs have once again fulfilled their opportunistic tendencies, put on their progressive costumes and played pretend when it comes to Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win, either feigning ignorance or taking on his win as their own. Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education, declared that she “[doesn’t] follow American politics especially closely” on Sky News the day after Mamdani’s win, and Wes Streeting, rather presumptuously, tweeted about the “Inspirational campaign and victory” with “Lessons for progressives the world over.”
Now, he’s not wrong. Mamdani’s win was ground-breaking in its momentum; the lessons the left can learn from this should not be quickly forgotten. However, Streeting’s mislabelling of himself as a progressive who could celebrate such a win as his own is wildly misplaced. Streeting’s own anti-trans rights politics and the Labour party’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza, refusal to create affordable housing or tax the ultra-wealthy directly oppose practically everything Mamdani ran on. From proposing rent freezes and free buses, to implementing free childcare until five years old and a 2 per cent wealth tax on those earning $1m or more annually, Mamdani’s NYC looks strikingly different to the current Labour government’s apparent disregard for any and all policies that require a backbone. Labour’s attempt to ally themselves with Mamdani is nothing short of laughable.
Now, more than ever, it is abundantly clear that Labour’s inauthenticity is not our only option. Mamdani’s win has shown that there is a tangible and real possibility of hope and legitimacy in left-wing politics. Contrasting Labour’s 57 per cent disapproval rating with the momentum of Mamdani’s volunteer army of over 100,000, it’s clear that we must make a conscious move away from fearmongering and centrist, harm reduction politics and instead opt for a decisive politics of hope in which we can assert that we do, in fact, deserve better.
“Zohran Mamdani at the Resist Fascism Rally in Bryant Park on Oct 27th 2024” by Bingjiefu He is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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