Embecmom

We were out chatting to people again. A woman in Cardiff explains why she isn't voting Reform. "I don't think to them it's about immigration anymore, I think it is about them wanting England and Wales to be white again."

Our party has just come third in Gorton and Denton, a previously safe Labour seat - an area where we haven't lost an election since 1931. It is those running our party who are to blame. We need change at the top and serious lessons need to be learnt: 1) Don't ape Reform. In order to keep our voter coalition together we should be true to the progressive values that Labour is meant to stand for. The failure to do this meant large parts of our coalition fled to another progressive party. 2) Don't put factional interests ahead of everything else. The party blocked a popular candidate in Andy Burnham, who may well have been able to win this seat, from even putting himself forward for nakedly factional reasons, while the terrible decision to appoint Mandelson as US Ambassador came back to bite Labour. 3) Don't play dirty. The bizarre claims about the Greens in relation to drugs and sex workers were desperate, embarrassing, and harmful. It is no wonder they did not work and instead reflected badly on our party. 4) Don’t say only Labour can beat Reform if - thanks to the leadership's own self-sabotage - it’s not true. Because it will be true in many other seats, and now voters won’t believe us. But fundamentally, this shows why first past the post isn’t fit for purpose. If the government doesn’t introduce proportional voting, a far right party could win the next general election outright on a minority of the vote. This possibility inevitably makes tactical voting essential in some seats, and Labour is playing with fire.