In the early days of the election campaign, Labour leader Keir Starmer announced: “I would describe myself as a socialist.” Given the choices he has made about Labour’s political trajectory in recent years, there are parts of his own party that scoffed at the very idea. But there is, equally, evidence in Starmer’s words, actions – and election manifesto – that would support his claim.

In order to understand this debate better, I asked political sociologist Luke Martell, who studies socialism, to help us understand firstly what it means to be a socialist in the modern world – and then to give us a verdict on whether Starmer meets the mark.

One thing that Starmer absolutely, definitely is, is very angry about the state of dentistry in the UK. During the election campaign, he has repeatedly highlighted how many children are being hospitalised because of rotting, untreated teeth. We therefore wanted to know what he would do about it if elected to government in two weeks. Here, a dentistry expert drills down into Labour’s “rescue plan” for our teeth.

Whatever the outcome of this policy, Starmer better not tell any lies about it – at least not in Wales, where the Senedd wants to make it a criminal offence for politicians to mislead the public.

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