Arrogance and detachment inevitably led to disaster

by local members in what even the New Statesman described as a grotesque stitch-up. Bereft of credibility, the ghost army of Momentum Corbynites then stayed away from any campaigning, refusing to telephone and prematurely celebrating victory in an eve-of-poll late night drinking session.

The voters responded accordingly. Two years ago I got more than 25,000 Labour votes. On Thursday this had fallen to 14,000 people – some Conservatives returning to their natural home and others lending their votes to Boris Johnson in order to get Brexit done. Since 1935 Labour has never once polled under 20,000 votes.

On every single doorstep one issue came up – Corbyn – a man virtually universally distrusted and detested across the working-class communities of this Nottinghamshire constituency.

As I warned Corbyn repeatedly in person, in private as well as in public, they see him as a man who would never shake a bucket for Help for Heroes and therefore entirely unsuitable to be their prime minister. Across the North and Midlands it was a similar story, the new £3 members invisible and the atmosphere toxic.

Even in Bassetlaw anti-Semitism came up as an issue – a negative repeated across the North. With virtually no Jewish population at all, this is perhaps best summed up by one railway worker who stopped me to ask: “If Corbyn is doing this to the

Jews, what will he do to the rest of us?”

There is no love yet of Mr Johnson – but no hatred either. Canny northerners are reserving judgment, but not holding back lending their vote. If Mr Johnson is sensible he will look at the electoral success of a much more polarising leader, such as Viktor Orbán in Hungary, who has built huge numbers of playgrounds and football stadiums. Populist, but popular.

The Labour Party was created to represent the views of the working class. In the referendum the working class gave their view unequivocally and supported Brexit. Any party that ignores working-class aspiration does not deserve to be in power.

Will Labour regroup as the voice of the working class, pressuring the new government to revert into its monetarist ideology? Or will Mr Johnson look beyond his party and connect with the forgotten communities that have gifted him power? The honeymoon will survive as Brexit and immigration controls are enacted, but the bigger prize remains there for both parties to play for.

The only certainty is that the Corbyn cult can never reach into the hearts of these northern lands and their stranglehold over Labour’s machinery must be the best Christmas present for the new Prime Minister.

John Mann is former Labour MP for Bassetlaw and a government adviser on anti-Semitism