In the wake of the Clacton and Heywood & Middleton by-election results, the inhabitants of the Westminster bubble are plunging into a frenzy of speculation. In particular, they are revelling in making each other’s flesh crawl with hysteria about the UKIP menace. Within the Labour Party the cry is to “respond” to UKIP by moving right on welfare and immigration. But, before getting swept away with this narrative, it might be useful to inject some facts.

First, working class alienation from the Labour Party is real, but it entirely predates the rise of UKIP.  It actually has its origins in the New Labour era. It is ironic that the people, who are now most vehement about re-connecting with our core voters, are Labour right wingers of the New Labour persuasion. I served on the National Executive of the Labour Party in the nineteen nineties when New Labour was in all its pomp and power. But, whenever you raised core Labour voters then, you were dismissed. Those people you were told “had nowhere else to go“. Continue reading →