Keir’s party is truly flagging

TO the Tories they were the “red wall” – to Labour they are the “foundation seats”.

Their loss represented the biggest polls bulldozing Labour had suffered in more than 80 years – and allowed Boris Johnson to romp home with an 80-seat majority just over 12 months ago.

The Labour Party resolved to try and win them back, and commissioned research which has come up with some recommendations that are more insulting than insightful.

A solution from a branding agency, leaked this week, suggested: “The use of the flag, veterans, dressing smartly at the war memorial etc. Give voters a sense of authentic values alignment.”

Could that be any more demeaning? If you’re reading this in one of the former Labour strongholds, can you possibly need further proof this party is as out of touch with you and your beliefs as a BBC bulletin or north London dinner party? How could I, born and bred in the South, possibly claim to know how you might be feeling?

My mother was born in Barrow-inFurness and raised in Leicester.

I’m immensely proud of the strong Northern and Midlands streak running through me, and I know trying to patronise folk in those areas will not work. These people can smell a phoney the minute they leave the Watford Gap services, and Labour has a lot to do.

Sir Keir Starmer was never going to be an easy sell. The party of the workers is now led by a knight of the realm from a central London constituency.

He is a smooth-talking Remainer who is now forced to talk up the possibilities of Brexit.

But make no mistake, Labour’s shoddy makeover has begun. Sir Keir has already addressed the nation with a Union flag beside him as he pledged to “rebuild the country”.

The rifts within the Labour Party run deeper than wearing a smart suit while standing at a war memorial.

And the canny folk in the Midlands and the North will see through this slapdash veneer instantly.