Labour’s opportunity to rebuild, reconnect

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has rightly admitted that last week’s election was a ‘‘disaster’’. Brexit undoubtedly played a pivotal role in Labour’s humiliation. The attempt to appeal to both remain and leave voters with a convoluted and equivocal policy turned out to be doomed, though Mr McDonnell is surely right to say that the composition of its support placed it on ‘‘the horns of a dilemma’’ that was all but impossible to resolve. It was not all about Brexit, though.

Labour must now take the necessary time to reflect on an epochal setback. A rush to premature conclusions should be avoided at all costs. Some of the party’s policies were popular and should not become discredited by association with this defeat. As a starting point, Labour clearly needs to radically reset its relationship with the towns and rural regions of England and Wales (Scotland, for the moment, seems unlikely to be part of any solution).

A revival and deepening of local democracy will help Labour begin to reconnect in the years to come. In a way, this is where the party came in. It emerged then as a civilising force for community, solidarity and self-help. The same yearning for communal renewal characterises post-industrial Britain. This was once, in every sense, Labour’s natural terrain. It can be so again.