It will hardly be sufficient for senior Labour figures to simply blame Brexit for the disastrous election results (Report, 13 December).
That issue obviously played a significant part in heavily leave-voting constituencies, but, as indicated in such areas in 2017, there is also a very strong feeling that the party was not understanding people’s concerns and anxieties.
A radical programme is fine, but it must carry conviction that it is realistic and affordable. Adding extra large financial commitments even after the party manifesto was published was hardly helpful in persuading people that the proposed policies were practical.
Labour will of course survive the defeat, as it did in the 1980s, but it must be ready to fully examine all the reasons for it.
David Winnick
Labour MP for Walsall North, 1979-2017
• Labour’s U-turn on accepting the referendum result and its decision to put remain to voters once again has proven to be disastrous. Its left and right – Momentum and the Blairites – were united in this endeavour to reverse the 2016 referendum result.
The one thing they had in common was being overwhelmingly middle class. If Labour is ever to govern again, it must urgently take positive action to increase working-class representation among its membership and representatives.
Peter McKenna
Liverpool
• I appreciate that Boris Johnson has a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the truth, so I feel compelled to query his statement that the election result confirmed “the will of the British people” in wanting Brexit. In fact, parties committed to Brexit secured 47% of the popular vote, while those committed to revocation/second referendum secured 51% of the vote. Democracy, eh?
Peter Hulme
Reading
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