Blue Labour in the ‘MAGA Square’
Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar explore the national-populist tendencies of the Labour Government

Photo: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire.
The anti-immigration, pro-faith-flag-and-family Labour peer Maurice Glasman – the originator of the ‘Blue Labour’ faction, arguing for economically interventionist and socially conservative policies – was the only UK parliamentarian to receive an official invite to Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January.
Having sung the praises of the President, his ‘Make America Great Again’ project, and several of its key ideologues – including strategist Steve Bannon and Vice President JD Vance – Glasman claims that he remains on the left of the political spectrum.
His invitation – signed by Vance himself – was part of a wider strategy by the Trump movement to invite key figures from across the world, eager to salute and hail, in Glasman’s words, the new “emperor of the republic”. He was labelled a “hero” by Bannon.
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