Purging the left has been one of Keir Starmer’s main goals since his election as leader four years ago. His team has taken the whip off Jeremy Corbyn, junked much of the party’s 2019 manifesto and moved to block left-wingers on Labour’s National Executive Committee as part of their bid to show that the party has truly changed – honest! But how true is that really, eh?

Mr S was amused to discover that among the dozens of Labour councillors elected this morning was one Karl Peter Marx Wardlaw. Yes, it’s official: getting Karl Marx into office is official Labour policy. Wardlaw was elected to represent Brinnington and Stockport Central in Greater Manchester, winning with a landslide 1,069 votes of a total 1,752 cast overall. It follows a previous bid for office back in 2019 when Wardlaw polled a miserable 13 per cent as a Green candidate in the exact same ward. Clearly being a footsoldier for the Starmer army is more in keeping with his politics…

With a name like Karl Marx, you can no doubt expect Stockport’s newest councillor to be referenced in some dreadful forthcoming Tory conference gags. Given Keir Starmer’s zeal to show that Labour has truly changed, Steerpike would certainly place money on Cllr Wardlaw’s name being referenced by Rishi Sunak before the Labour leader. Up the workers, eh comrade?