Irrespective of the results from the Copeland and Stoke byelections (Report, 24 February), it was clear that Jeremy Corbyn’s detractors were preparing to impose their chosen narrative, whether on victory or defeat. What is striking about their criticism is not the strategic disloyalty, paucity of political alternatives, or the fact that in both seats the previous incumbents – having presided over sharp declines in Labour’s polling – left their constituents for the noble pursuit of personal enrichment. Instead, it is the wilful disregard of their own records, embodied in the entitled impunity of Lord Mandelson, that exposes the cynicism of the party’s critics. Did Corbyn trigger the haemorrhaging of Labour’s share of the vote from 1997? Did the Labour left foster the collapse in the authority of a political elite so mired in complacency and ideological stasis that an alienated and angry minority has found comfort in the rhetoric of the far right?
No doubt Momentum, highly visible on the streets of both constituencies, will be blamed for the historic shifts that have atomised working-class communities and consciousness. If Labour is to stand a chance of successfully communicating its transformative agenda to an electorate reeling under the iron heel of austerity, MPs and party grandees must end their unrelenting destabilisation of the frontbench, acknowledge their own culpability in Labour’s troubles and support every effort to restore a reputation they themselves are responsible for squandering.
Mike Cowley
Edinburgh
• The only way the Tories will ever be defeated and the demise of Ukip ensured is for all the other Westminster parties to unite behind a programme of progressive economic nationalism. Steve Bannon (Report, 24 February) and Marine Le Pen have their fingers on the pulse of voters far more than most elected politicians in the UK. The latter still mostly beat the drum of free movement of people within the European Union and open borders to capital and goods.
In doing so they completely ignore the fact that it was rejecting these policies that got Donald Trump elected and sees Le Pen’s continuous rise in the polls. These shrewd campaigners responded to citizens’ desires, rather than those of big business and finance, not just for stricter immigration controls, but also for protection of domestic jobs. Trump and the Brexit referendum offered voters their first opportunity to reject inadequately controlled immigration and demand protection for local employment.
Were politicians from all opposition parties to embrace such policies it would make them more electable, and if they formed a progressive alliance to vote tactically at the next election, they could defeat the Tories and Ukip. Even the Lib Dems’ Vince Cable is on record as supporting controls on migration and capital flows. Had those who voted Lib Dem and Green in Copeland voted Labour, the Tories would have been defeated. It’s not the leaders who should be the centre of the inevitable political post mortems, it’s election-winning policies.
Colin Hines
East Twickenham, Middlesex
• The rightwing vote in Stoke was split between Ukip and the Tories. The Labour candidate profited. In Copeland, the Ukip challenge was far less effective and the rightwing vote went overwhelmingly to the Tories, and Labour lost. This is likely to be a pattern that will repeat in other “safe” Labour seats at the next election, especially if the Ukip challenge fades further. The situation is, in fact, far worse for the future of Labour than these results would suggest at first sight.
Dr John Cookson
Bournemouth
• Neither of Labour’s two byelection candidates included a call for proportional representation in their campaigns. How do they, and their party, ever expect to attract the votes of 21st-century progressives while consistently ignoring one of that group’s key demands? Labour needs to inspire, or it will continue to decline.
Martin Childs
Orpington, Kent
• Following the Copeland election defeat, Corbyn’s supporters declared that “we proved them wrong” and “if we can build on the momentum … we can beat Ukip and the Tories across the country”. As a physics teacher, I’d like to point out that momentum is a vector. It requires a direction of travel.
Ben Littlewood
London
• David Cameron’s impressive political legacy involves, at best, a period of febrile economic uncertainty or, more likely, a serious and prolonged impairment of growth, employment and welfare, coupled with a possible break-up of the UK. Still, that’s a small price to pay for shooting the Ukip fox and neutering the Labour party. After all, we are all in this together.
Alan Knight
Professor emeritus, St Antony’s College, Oxford
• The last time Labour was in as hopeless a position as it is today, we had three consecutive election victories lying in wait.
David Butler
London
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