Labour must learn from this defeat — or it’s finished

The Labour Party is now faced with a stark choice. Does it learn or does it die? It is as simple — and as existential — as that.

There is so much to learn. Facing the worst defeat since the end of the war there won’t just be one answer, though those who have made their living denying Corbyn’s many, many flaws will try to blame Brexit alone. Meanwhile those like me who voted Remain will have to also listen to why we failed to convince people of Labour’s position on Brexit.

Jeremy Corbyn has to go. Now. But that cannot be the only thing that changes. Labour has to get to grips with how badly it has handled the last four years. It has to understand that many people now see them as a racist party. At the very least they see the members as people willing to tolerate that racism, willing to go out on the doorsteps and defend that racism — willing to deny it to the faces of the Jewish community pleading with them to be better.

Boris Johnson does not deserve to be Prime Minister. He lied, he evaded, he too has a long track record of racism, sexism and generally being vile. That he is not just PM but one with a large majority is not just down to one of the most cynical, disgraceful campaigns in history.

It is down to the complete failure of the Labour Party.

It is down to the failure of the Labour Party that the NHS is now at very real risk of being a pawn in Johnson’s Brexit game. It is down to the failure of the Labour Party that those reliant on the welfare state will be subjected to a further five years of cruelty.

It is down to the Labour Party that Muslims, Gypsies and Travellers and many people of colour will feel less secure in their own country. It is down to the Labour Party that many, many good MPs lost their jobs. They have been let down, their activists have been let down. Their voters have been let down. Those who deserve and need a socialist government have been let down.

This doesn’t need an investigation — it needs an autopsy. This cannot be overseen by those who control every aspect of the Labour Party. They are responsible for this failure. The unions have to step up and make sure that no stone is left unturned, no issue unexamined. They must threaten to pull their funding for Labour if a full examination of the facts does not happen with independent people in charge. The NEC has to take seriously what so many activists have been telling them about party culture. About the racism and sexism and harassment and just the general nastiness which has driven good people away and made party meetings almost unbearable.

The Labour Party may be dead. The next few weeks will tell. But if it continues in its current zombie form there won’t even be a better, cleaner form of socialism that can come in its place. Socialists have to decide now in a way they didn’t in 2015 or 2017 whether they want to be a government or a protest movement.

So far, the signs are not good.