SIR KEIR STARMER is caught on the horns of a dilemma. To the right looms Reform UK, which presented a polished party-political broadcast this week. To the left, more than 1000 activists presented themselves to be arrested outside Parliament over the Government’s outlawing of the protest group Palestine Action (Comment, 29 August). Both events are symbolic of serious threats to this Labour Government.

Nigel Farage’s party-political broadcast was edited down from a long session held at Oxford airport in a hangar full of loyalists recently. I watched the full thing. It played extensively on concerns — and fears — about immigration, openly revelling in phrases such as “the invasion of Britain” by people in small boats. The edited version was a slick professional production, filled with driving music, over Mr Farage’s oratory. All form and not much content, it was no less politically potent for that.

After the protest in Parliament Square, where the more than 1000 presented themselves to be arrested, ministers insisted that supporting Palestine Action was not the same as supporting Palestine. Sir Keir himself, who has revealed the Jewishness of his close family, hinted that Palestine Action had a history of “targeting Jewish-owned businesses”. But he is missing the point.

What really animates the protesters is the Palestine inaction of a Labour Government that impotently throws up its hands in rhetorical horror, but takes no substantive measures to curb Benjamin Netanyahu’s industrial-scale mechanisation of murder to expunge the people of Gaza from their homeland. Worse than that, Labour this month went backwards, in a clear policy shift, with an overt statement that Israel was not committing genocide.

Sir Keir knows that he is now caught in a pincer movement. On one side, Reform UK is consistently ten points or more ahead in the opinion polls. On the other, the activism of the Left is revitalised — and not just in protests over Gaza. Voices of the Left are being heard again in the debate over who should be the next deputy leader of the Labour Party. Zack Polanski, the new leader of the Green Party, is no mere environmentalist. This “eco-populist”, who has a massive mandate from Green Party members, is attacking in a full-throated way from the radical Left. Combined with Jeremy Corbyn’s new party — which might otherwise have been a mere pimple on the bottom for Labour — Mr Polanski is a potent threat.

The Prime Minister has gambled in the reshuffle that followed Angela Rayner’s forced departure over her bungled tax affairs. He has moved Labour to the right, in an attempt to compete with Reform over the nation’s increasing panic over immigration. In doing so, he has opened up space for the Left to manoeuvre against him. Perhaps he had no choice. Reaffirming traditional Labour values risked a resounding defeat by the Faragists at the next General Election.

But opening up space for manoeuvre on the Left could usher in an era of increasingly fractious division. Warnings from this week’s Trades Union Congress, from leaders on both Right as well as Left, suggest that the unions may exacerbate that problem with more strikes and more talk of disaffiliation from the Labour Party. Splits in the parliamentary party could be dangerous. A General Election could come sooner than expected.