‘We have been taken over by woke warriors’

As MPs say Labour’s suffering ‘Long Corbyn’, frontbencher quits with withering verdict:

A LABOUR frontbencher last night quit his post, claiming a ‘London-based bourgeoisie’ had ‘effectively captured the party’.

Khalid Mahmood warned Labour had ‘lost touch with ordinary British people’ as others raised fears it may never get back into power.

Sir Keir Starmer’s allies yesterday argued the party is suffering from ‘Long Corbyn’ in the wake of its crushing by-election defeat in Hartlepool.

But the leader faced a battering from all sides as both the hard-left and Blairites demanded an urgent change in direction.

His misery was compounded as the Conservatives took control of a raft of local councils in England.

Lord Mandelson, who was MP for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, said he felt ‘a mild fury’ at the result. He added: ‘The last 11 general elections read: lose, lose, lose, lose, Blair, Blair, Blair, lose, lose, lose, lose. We need, for once in this party, to learn the lessons of those victories, as well as those defeats.’

Mr Mahmood last night launched a blistering attack as he announced his resignation as a Labour defence spokesman.

In an excoriating article for centre-right think-tank Policy Exchange, the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr wrote: ‘My view is simple, in the past decade Labour has lost touch with ordinary British people.

‘A London-based bourgeoisie, with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors, has effectively captured the party.’

He argued: ‘The loudest voices in the Labour movement over the past year in particular have focused more on pulling down Churchill’s statue than they have on helping people pull themselves up in the world. No wonder it is doing better among rich urban liberals and young university graduates than it is amongst the most important part of its traditional electoral coalition, the working-class.’

A Labour spokesman said Mr Mahmood had resigned four weeks ago.

Sir Keir admitted Labour had lost the trust of voters. But he insisted he was up to the job and vowed to ‘take responsibility for fixing things’.

It is understood he will hold a reshuffle of his shadow Cabinet in the next week, but he conceded: ‘We have lost four general elections and had a bitterly disappointing set of results last night. This goes way beyond a reshuffle or personalities.’

Party figures yesterday raised alarm at how Labour had failed to make progress despite ditching Mr Corbyn and moving on from the issue of Brexit.

The Hartlepool result was in part due to voters who backed Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party at the last election – when it took a quarter of the vote – switching to the Conservatives. There are a further 36 Labour seats across the country where its lead over the Tories in 2019 was smaller than the number who voted for the Brexit Party.

Former Labour cabinet minister Lord Adonis last night admitted ‘it could be curtains for the Labour Party’. ‘We need to contemplate that possibility,’ he told Andrew Pierce’s Mail+ podcast. The peer, who had supported Sir Keir to replace Mr Corbyn, said he now believed he was just a ‘transitional figure’ and lamented his lack of ‘political skills or antennae’.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a Labour MP on the party’s left, attacked the leader for ‘valueless flagwaving and suit-wearing’.

But influential Corbynite figures, including Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and ex- shadow chancellor John McDonnell, stopped short of calling for Sir Keir to go, and argued he should be given more time. Mr Corbyn last night suggested Sir Keir’s Labour Party was ‘offering nothing’ to voters.

Asked if Sir Keir should quit, he told Channel 4 News: ‘It’s up to him what he decides to do. But the important thing is that this party represents a real, radical alternative to inspire people.

‘ Offering nothing, offering insipid support for the Government, causes people either to vote for somebody else or simply to stay home and disappear.’

Momentum, which backed Mr Corbyn, said the results were a ‘disaster’. Co-chairman Andrew Scattergood said if Sir Keir ‘doesn’t change direction, not only will he be out of a job – but the Labour Party may be out of government forever’.

A JL Partners poll for Channel 4 News found the top reason people gave for not voting Labour on Thursday was Sir Keir’s leadership. This was followed by not agreeing with the party’s policies, or worrying they did not have any at all.

AND HOW MANDELSON PUT BOOT IN

If you take the last eleven general elections, it’s lose, lose, lose, lose...Blair, Blair, Blair... lose, lose, lose, LOSE ‘Goes way beyond personalities’