It’s all about change and party hasn’t changed nearly enough
THE Hartlepool defeat for Labour was upsetting, but it didn’t surprise me.
The pandemic squeezed the politics out of the campaign with people in forgiving mood towards the Government following last year’s bad mistakes.
Freshly vaccinated voters were showing little anger, just a desire to pull together and get through it all.
I say little anger, but if I am honest, where I did detect this, it was directed more at Labour than the Government.
As I revisited areas where I used to receive strong political support, I was told that Labour had lost its way.
Jeremy Corbyn still casts a long shadow. A female voter in Chaucer
Avenue told me: “I cannot believe I am telling you this but I voted Tory because of Corbyn.”
When I told her Keir Starmer is very different, she snapped back: “You will have to prove it – you can earn my vote before I come back.”
There was more like this. And the message was clear: Labour needs to get its act together.
Locally too, they were disillusioned with Labour councillors who were aloof from them, speaking a language that owed more to far-left platitudes than their everyday lives.
Despite the disappointment of the by-election loss, we are now going to see the re-building of Labour’s reputation locally, and similar fightbacks are taking place in many former Labour strongholds as Starmer supporters gain the upper-hand over Corbyn’s army of zealots.
But if I take away one abiding impression, it is that in towns like Hartlepool the political kaleidoscope has turned and Labour is not going to recover by attempting to bring back the past.
A new model Labour party is being demanded by voters, who themselves have moved on.
In smart and proud former council houses now occupied by their owners, voters want a Labour party that understands their aspiration, believes in social justice, knows this has to be paid for and will ensure that fair rules apply to all – from hard-working welfare recipients to the rich and privileged.
They want to be heard, not talked down to, and they want to get behind policies they feel are genuinely useful and relevant to improving their lives.
Labour has not spoken to these voters for over a decade since Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were prime ministers.
If Keir Starmer wants to follow in these illustrious footsteps, he will need to deliver some hard truths to his party – just like my former constituents have delivered to him.
The fact is it’s not that Labour has changed too much since Corbyn, as some on the left claim, but that it has not changed nearly enough.
For Britain’s sake, we have to hope Keir Starmer realises this. And that those who want to block his way will now stand aside and let him do his job.