A stitch-up to ensure a Corbynism continuity leader won’t be tolerated

When one of Anna Turley’s constituents arrived at her office on Monday morning, the former Redcar MP had to explain that she could not help, as she was no longer an MP. The consequences of Labour’s election defeat are becoming more painfully clear with every passing day. We have just suffered our worst defeat since 1935. Constituencies that have returned Labour MPS for a century have turned blue.

It didn’t need to be this way. The Tories were beatable. Throughout the election campaign, I was struck by the lack of love for the Conservatives. Trust was the concern raised time and again about our Prime Minister. But Boris Johnson won’t spend much time agonising over that. In the end, voters gave him a thumping majority and simply gave Labour a thumping.

If the problem could be reduced to one man or one policy, Labour’s political crisis wouldn’t be so deep; at the next election Jeremy Corbyn will be long gone and Brexit will have been put into motion. Labour’s problems run deeper. People want change, but Corbynism offered change they couldn’t believe in. The much-needed case for investment in our public services and economic reform was undermined by promises that came at such a pace and scale that people didn’t believe our manifesto was credible. They didn’t even know if we could be trusted with the fundamental task of keeping our country safe.

This is Labour’s fourth election defeat in a row. The purpose of Labour is to win power so that we can change our country for the better. Our members understand this. That’s why hundreds of thousands of members mounted a huge effort to get a Labour government elected. If campaigns were won on shoe-leather, Labour would be celebrating a landslide.

We now face the prospect of another five years in opposition. Three things need to change.

Firstly, new leadership needs to offer a decisive break with the past.

Corbynism without Corbyn is doomed to fail. There is no hope in nostalgia, nor fresh inspiration to be found by clinging to old orthodoxies.

Secondly, we need to win the argument for investment in our public services with an economic policy that people can trust, while also turning our attention to the biggest challenges that will shape Britain in the 2020s, from the climate emergency to the technological revolution.

Thirdly, we must change our culture and finally deal with the cancer of anti-semitism, creating a culture where people from across the Labour movement feel welcome and included.

That culture change must start now. The choice of who leads Labour could define our place in history for better or for worse. There are plenty of people who left the Labour Party because of Corbynism and plenty of others who are heartbroken by our failure to win.

We should welcome them in with open arms and ask them to help us to choose our next leader. Trying to stitch up the process to favour candidates most perceived to be “continuity Corbynism” by excluding Labour supporters won’t be tolerated.