The term
British Left refers to
left-wing movements, parties and activists in Great Britain. The biggest political party associated with the British Left is the
Labour Party, also the largest political party in the UK with over 350,000 members. As an opposition party under the leadership of
Ed Miliband from 2010 to 2015, the Labour Party was criticised by some, including former party leader
Tony Blair, as straying leftwards from the "centre ground" of British politics, and that Miliband was a "traditional left-wing" politician. However, others disputed this view, and put Labour's loss of the 2015 UK election down to the party being too right wing. The unexpected
landslide victory of
Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015
Labour leadership election represented a resurgence of the Labour Left and led to a surge in membership. In the reshuffle that followed,
John McDonnell (chairman of the
Labour Representation Committee) and
Diane Abbott (member of the
Socialist Campaign Group) were appointed to the
Shadow Cabinet.