Those members of the Labour frontbench who resigned after Jeremy Corbyn won the party leadership on Saturday epitomise the career politicians who have become so desperately out of touch with large sections of the voting population. As a former Labour voter, I think it is far more important at the moment that the Labour party provides an effective opposition than that it wins the next election.
A growing number of people not only in Britain but in Europe generally are no longer prepared to swallow the great lie of “there is no alternative”. Economic liberalism benefits a shrinking minority and is deeply destructive. The party needs to work with local groups to find bottom-up as opposed to top-down solutions to the enormous social problems confronting every country, and it is this bottom-up approach that Corbyn stands for. The Tories are behaving as if they have a large majority. In fact there are far more people opposed to the Tories than for them, and before it wins power alone, the Labour party, while preparing its policies, should be prepared to lead an alliance of the left. There is little point in a party of opposition which just tweaks Tory policies.
Nicolette Roberts
Manosque, France
• Shame on Tristram Hunt, and other opposition frontbenchers with less well-recognised names, for walking away in a self-important huff without even waiting to see what shape Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership would take or on what footing he intended to unite the Labour party.
Those who jumped ship so precipitately might perhaps have found it necessary to refuse a position on the shadow cabinet at a later stage; but they failed their party at the one moment when a show of unity and support for the new leader was imperative. If, as the pessimists predict, divisions break out in the party, they will have to take a large share of the blame.
Hugo Perks
Monmouth
More letters on the future of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership:
