Is Corbyn’s re-election a disaster for Labour?

AFTER the next General Election, Labour will wake up to the fact that a huge mandate from Left-wing activists is a world apart from a similar mandate from ordinary Labour voters. Jeremy Corbyn talks about travelling the country and listening to Labour views. What he has actually done is listen to Left-wingers hand-picked to talk to him. In the EU referendum his party campaigned to Remain, but if you look at the voting pattern, nearly every area in Labour’s Northern heartlands voted Out. So much for understanding your core voters. Labour won three consecutive elections by moving to the centre and appealing to aspirational Labour families — and to disillusioned Tories. The last time the country elected a Left-wing government was in the Seventies, and there is no chance of it happening again. If Mr Corbyn wants to understand real Labour people and the issues that affect them, he would be better served renting a terrace house in somewhere like Wigan, Wakefield or Workington for a couple of years.

GARRY PEARSON, Eastbourne, Sussex. WHO won and who lost in Saturday’s Labour leadership election? Jeremy Corbyn won, but the party lost. There has always been — and now remains — a puzzle at the heart of Labour’s philosophy. Is the party principally about large-scale nationalisation and enforced equality or something milder? Until this basic issue is resolved, we’re unlikely to see the Opposition become the Government.

Rev A. McLUSKEY, Stanwell, Middx. THE Labour Party is the voters and the voters want Corbyn. His critics need to address that and work with it. Corbyn is different and people like this. He wants a better world — and so do I. Labour voters are tired of lies and excuses. We want a kinder, more considerate and more compassionate world — and Jeremy will give us that, if he wins.

PAM WARD, Saxmundham, Suffolk.