Martin Kettle (Blair’s a flawed messenger – who’s still worth listening to, 5 January) is right. We should also heed former Labour ministers who resigned from official commissions last month. Alan Milburn (Opinion, 2 December) argued that “whole communities and parts of Britain are being left behind economically and hollowed out socially”. Andrew Adonis (Report, 30 December) accused the government of “ignoring the crises of housing, education, the NHS and social and regional inequality which are undermining our nation and feeding a populist upsurge”. These inequalities turbo-charged the Brexit vote but will be made seriously worse by Brexit.
The Brexit camp guiled voters by claiming that immigration was responsible for low wages and job losses. This fraud must be exposed. The goal of many Brexit leaders is a Singapore-style low-wage, low-benefit, low-regulation economy, dubbed “Empire 2.0”, whose offshore tax havens have been revealed in the Paradise Papers. Even more pain will be inflicted on the “left behind” and “left out”. Labour must campaign to stay in the single market to reboot economic confidence and announce a New Deal. Macron saw off Le Pen by saying he was for “a strong France in a Europe that protects”, not least workers’ rights. Corbyn fears losing the support of Labour Brexiters but he must lead a push-back campaign before it is too late.
Robert Gildea
Professor of modern history, University of Oxford
• Tony Blair may well be seen as a flawed messenger but as it is a matter of national self-preservation, who cares? Winston Churchill was not without blemish, when in another, even darker, moment he dared to face up to rampant fascism. Where would we have been if he had been rejected?
David Hindmarsh
Cambridge
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