Article by Rakib Ehsan
Last night showed yet again that large swathes of the country are sick of being treated with patronising condescension by Labour politicians and student activists. Labour was crushed in the
Hartlepool by-election and suffered ward losses in multiple northern regions, with Conservatives gained control of Dudley, Nuneaton and Bedworth councils.
These areas, with their high numbers of traditional blue collar workers, are leading the charge against a woke agenda that has almost destroyed their traditional party. Working class voters are sending a clear message: they do not need a ‘political re-education’, and they reject the fundamentally warped interpretation of British society held by some of the most vocal Labour representatives.
They see that too many Labour politicians are in thrall to a toxic racialised politics, the extent of this became clear when Sir Keir Starmer ‘took the knee’
in support of Black Lives Matter. The movement's calls for the abolition of the police and a post-capitalist society reflect a crude identitarianism that carries no truck with the vast majority of Britons. Only one in ten of people in this country are in favour of reduced investment for local police forces.
Labour is also too comfortable with elements of the London elite who proudly vilify provincial voters who supported Brexit. It doesn’t help matters that Sir Keir Starmer was the chief architect of Labour’s second referendum policy – an exemplification of the metropolitan, anti-democratic tendencies which have taken hold of the party. It was, naturally, electorally disastrous.
The party had an opportunity to embrace Brexit. It could have framed the constitutional change as an opportunity to reform our democratic system of governance to empower local communities. But Starmer and his team lacked the imagination to do so.
Now, as Labour reflects on this week’s disastrous results, it must avoid the temptation to double down by embracing the ‘energetic’, but ultimately witless, Corbynite brigade. Backbench MPs such as Zarah Sultana and Nadia Whittome may be wildly popular in their social media echo-chambers, but student-style political activism goes down like a lead balloon outside of them.
One would certainly be keen to see Sultana visit Dudley and articulate why fighting racism must be part of a broader anti-capitalist strategy, or to accompany Whittome on a trip to Nuneaton, where she would no doubt attempt to explain why she struggles to condemn violent anti-police riots.
Back in the real world, the existential nature of their party’s problems should not be underestimated. Provincial market towns such as Nuneaton have historically been viewed as the ‘bellwethers’ of Middle England. With Labour rapidly evolving into a rudderless political creature, representing a foul blend of metropolitan liberalism and student-style identity politics, these areas, with their pro-Brexit, community-oriented and quietly traditional electorates, are likely to turn into solid blue territory.
Labour politicians would only have themselves to blame for such an outcome.