Owen Jones is probably right that Labour’s right would rather split the party than contemplate a progressive Labour government. After all, they have form (Why Labour may have to divide before they conquer, 2 June). Where he goes wrong in the topography of his speculative reform of Britain’s voting system is in assigning “older working-class voters, particularly in towns battered by deindustrialisation” to a category opposed to younger voters who “plumped decisively for leftwing options”. Working-class voters can much more easily be won to an ambitious programme of job creation, industrial investment, capital controls, housing construction and fair education than to the corporate class compromises of the Labour right.
Toxic though the discourse around immigration is, many of the millions of voters lost by New Labour, either to abstention or Ukip, and particularly those still loyal to Labour’s original hostility to the bosses’ EU, can be won to a non-racist immigration policy if, and only if, it is coupled with a progressive programme for government. Whether any of these ambitious goals can be achieved while Britain remains a member of the EU, or whether that body continues to exist, can only be tested in government.
Nick Wright
Faversham, Kent
• It seems at least possible that we might have an early general election. If the country votes to leave the EU, where does that leave the Labour party? It will be campaigning to become the government, but it will have to respect the EU vote. The Tories have a pro-Brexit faction who can form a government if elected. Does the Labour party have competent politicians who can lead Britain out of Europe? I am surprised this is not being discussed.
Jim Lynch
Milton Keynes
