There are no shortcuts to victory at the next election – here are the three things Labour has to do
- Peter Mandelson was the Labour MP for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004
Keir Starmer faces a formidable challenge to overcome the structural reasons for Labour’s 10-year electoral decline, which led to the collapse in 2019. This is no fleeting unpopularity. During the past decade, in the minds of millions of voters, the party’s identity became first confused and weak and then, under Jeremy Corbyn, alienating and unpatriotic. We parted company with millions of former Labour voters as the party moved further and further out of the mainstream and only serious repair will win back this support.
The party was seemingly departing from the legacy of Attlee, Wilson and Blair. Although these leaders had mixed records of achievement, they each personified the desire by Labour, as a trusted party of conscience and incremental reform, to lean heavily against inequalities in society and, with their eyes fixed firmly on a better future, to build a solid platform of aspiration and opportunity for those with little security or privilege in society.