As disenchantment grows with mainstream parties, these collectives argue that the time is right – but there will be big obstacles

Ever since Keir Starmer began shoving Labour rightwards in 2020, a space has been opening up in British politics. The limited enthusiasm for Labour at the election and since has widened that space further, as has a more general dissatisfaction: a common feeling that our party system doesn’t properly represent voters on many issues, from inequality to Gaza.

Until recently, the pandemic and then the protracted collapse of the Conservative government distracted most people from this void to the left of Labour. The fact that the more radical leadership of his predecessor ended badly, with Labour’s heavy 2019 defeat, also discouraged further leftwing experiments. Of the many thousands who had been drawn in by Corbynism, some left Labour for the Greens, while others gave up on party politics, threatening to become a lost generation of progressives.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist