Labour losses were in train before Brexit or Corbynism existed, explains Alex Mayer.
Losing is rubbish. To all the activists and former MPs in the Midlands and North, we feel your pain.
In the East of England we are sadly quite used to losing. This time we in Labour only lost two seats, but this is no cause for celebration: it is simply because we have lost them all already. The Labour Party has not, for example, won a single seat in Essex in a General Election for over a decade.
If Labour is to win power again, we need to win right across the country. This is why in the period of reflection and subsequent leadership campaign, we need not only to think about the places we have most recently lost but also all the ones we have lost over the years.
Seats we lost in 2010 in the East of England now have solid Tory majorities like Harlow in Essex (14,063) and Great Yarmouth in Norfolk (17,663). Go back even further to Castle Point which we lost in 2001 and it has a Tory majority of 26,634!
However all of the current narratives of Labour defeat blame either our EU policy or our leader but if Labour is to form a government, we need to win back seats which we lost before anyone had heard of ‘Brexit’ or ‘Corbynism’.
Before people start blaming losing ‘loopy Left’ 2019 policies, they should think about the losing sober centre-Left 2010 policies too.
When Jeremy Corbyn says some of his policies are popular, he is correct. Polling shows around two-thirds of the population support renationalising the railways and so Labour’s 2019 manifesto to deliver improvements for rail passengers ‘by bringing our railways back into public ownership’ was an improvement on the 2010 offer — which was ‘to welcome rail franchise bids from not-for-profit, mutual or co-operative franchise enterprises’.
Neither should the Left fall into a Tory-inspired divide-and-rule trap of judging everything by its Leave-ness and Remain-ness. We did not lose Great Yarmouth and Harlow in 2010 because they were ‘Leave’ towns.
Directly after the referendum I wrote: ‘Of the conversations I’ve had about the referendum, few were really about Europe.
‘There are swathes of the population who feel angry. Some are angry that rents are going up or that they can’t get their child into the local school. A woman in Stevenage told me she was voting Leave because she was having to fight so hard to keep her mobility scooter. Others are angry about the rapid change in the country and the world, that has come about without their consent.’
The vote to Leave was a symptom of underlying problems which future Labour policy, for example, needs to address. Just blaming our Brexit policy of 2019 is not the solution.
A focus on the Midlands and North or on so-called ‘red wall’ seats is not enough.
Let Labour not make it four failed leaders and five failed manifestos. We need a Labour Party that speaks to new towns, market towns and coastal communities nationwide. We need a Labour Party that can win.
Alex Mayer is a former Labour MEP for the East of England. Follow her on Twitter.
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10 Responses to “As New Year approaches, it’s time to learn from history”
Arthur
Michael McManus: your deeply racist anti-Scottish views are embarrassingly obvious in your posts. Nobody is pretending Scottish voters are smarter than any other country’s voters. Labour has changed. People in Scotland don’t want what Labour now represents. Plenty of folk in England do seem to want what Labour represents now, but are outnumbered by others who prefer Tory policies. You can ignore those facts all you want, but that won’t make them any less true. Out of interest, are your Scots relative related in any way to your good friend Chalky?
Michael McManus
Arthur – first off, learn the meaning of racist: the belief that one identifiable group, usually on the basis of colour or heritage, is innately superior to (all) others. Not only is the word misapplied to me, I challenge you to find anyone outside of the ummah, India or Africa who can be so described. If you’re a product of the failing Scottish education system, you will have to try hard to grasp that.
I don’t doubt Scots like the bulk of brits did not find Labour to their taste. What I was asking was what they think the BS mediocrities of SNP can do for them, and how they think they can survive, never mind flourish, with a declining population and heavy subsidies from England (x2 what is spent south of the border). Answer that.
Julia Gibb
@McManus
I suppose all those countries that gained their Independence from London Rule were also “anti English?”
I suppose they were all subsidised by the English tax payer too?
The myth about supporters of Independence being anti English is an invention by your own media.
Wanting to choose the type of society you live in instead of having one imposed is about the positive choices and is progress.
The bit you struggle with is the Right to Self Determination. I have been involved with the Independence movement for many years and the only reference to anti English sentiment comes as an accusation from people like you.
Independence is a normal situation. The subsidy myth is another legacy of the States anti Independence propaganda. However the key issue on the latter is that it is none of your business! If you think it will be to your benefit then embrace it.
You can find London press cuttings from the mid 18th. Century stating America could never survive alone. New Zealand manages – How do you explain that? As does Ireland!
Michael McManus
Julia — Your final para makes an interesting point but the countries you cite were all unknowns as far as potential was concerned. Scotland’s physical and demographic resources are public knowledge – so it’s reasonable to ask what you think you can do separately that you can’t do as part of the UK. My Scots relatives say there is hostility to the English (more so than to the EU members whose fascism and mayhem marred the C20th and which we jointly defeated). They say it’s because of Thatcher and the poll tax. (I’m just reporting what was said – if you’d like me to make something nicer up, fine.)
The self-determination argument is a slippery slope. Will the islands get independence from you too? Nope. But why not? Some counties like Cornwall and Yorkshire have called for independence too. There has to be a limit, no? – so on what criteria?
Sopwith Morley
Labour…. If you want more misery in your life Vote Labour……
That should be your slogan, forget Brexit, forget Immigration, forget anti-semitism, whilst all these are symptoms, you have lost millions of supporters with your miserable defeatist 19th century, workhouse mentality. Who the hell do you think you are talking too?
Most people are enjoying life, are optimistic for the future, looking forward to their holiday and perhaps a newer car next year, and then like zombies Labour hove into view spouting their repetitive doom laden messages. You are about as popular or relevant to the optimistic majority as a dose of the clap.