Hope . trust and poor leadership Cost Labour this election not Jeremy Corbyn

Ray Barron- Woolford

Chief Executive Officer at Kath Duncan Equality & Civil Rights Network

We have still not learned why people voted Brexit almost 4 years ago. Attacking these people as being stupid, ignorant or racist really misses the point. This will not lead to a Labour government. People must accept that politicians of all colours often choose to put party politics before the interests of those they are elected to serve. Labour councils consistently put developers’ gold before community interests and implement cuts and closure before cutting their own councillors’ allowances. These are the real causes, not mainstream media.

Before I became successful, I did my time in the ‘care’ ( for want of a better word) of Local Councils and lived on the street as a homeless gay man, struggling to come to terms with who I was. The backdrop of my existence was Aids, that killed far too many of my friends and a partner I dearly loved, and the miner's strike that, most would agree, was little short of class war. Yet during all this period, I got no help from Labour. Living as a council tenant for over 30 years, I was disgusted by the failure of my local Labour Council to carry out basic repairs to our homes and estates. We council tenants were treated with contempt by the council and yet we had been taught through our heritage that Labour was the only party that got

our vote so it would only be a matter of time before traditional Labour voters would expect and demand more.

I live in a Labour area with a council that gets elected time after time by around 17% of the number on the electoral roll. Large numbers no longer register to vote or bother to vote because whatever they vote, they always get the same: a Labour council that has lost empathy, understanding and, I would argue, even core values. For many, these problems are no different today across the North as they are here in South London and yet when people vote Brexit, Liberal Democrat or Tory, they are attacked as bigots, stupid and ignorant. For many of you, your vote when you’re down to your last 10 pence when you’re first in the queue at the food bank and your kids have to make do with second-hand clothes or none, is the only power you have.

Trust and hope may have long ago been lost, yet like millions, I believed and still do in Jeremy Corbyn. He is NO bogeyman; he is a principled, kind, generous, funny, thoughtful man. This view I have gained not through any main-stream media, but by watching him, seeing him consistently across my life-time leading the battles I cared about, marching against the injustices that never seem to end. So, it was no surprise that I would be knocking doors for Labour as someone who has battled its Neoliberal agenda for years.

Corbyn, at last, was the man to change the party and deliver hope that I and so many others needed but had never had before. When I knocked on doors at the last general election, the mood was one of excitement that we could change the system. Even when 172 Labour MPs put out that letter saying he was unfit to lead Labour or the Government, we fought on. Corbyn, without that letter, would have won that election. Since then the failure of Corbyn team to get tough on Labour MPs, undermining not just the party leadership but the thousands of us whom Labour doorstepped was a huge error. Failing to call out the Labour Councils who were

doing a pretty awful job was another error, as was the failure to take action from the moment it was clear a problem was developing with the Jewish Community. These weaknesses showed many across the country that Jeremy Corbyn may be a great man, but could not lead. Meanwhile, Labour local was carrying on the same way as it always did, taking voters and communities for granted. The SNP swept the board in Scotland was only made possible by this failure and yet it still remains an issue. People outside Scotland don't have the SNP to voice a protest vote, but they do have a ragbag of far-right groups and Brexit that allows them to upset the status quo.

Yesterday’s election was not a win for The Conservative Party under PM Johnson, it was a protest vote against a party political system that is no longer fit for purpose and a party system that has lost trust. Whoever leads Labour next, must ensure its policies are explained in a way people believe can be afforded, supported by councils and political leaders who put their COMMUNITY first, before developers, privatisation and self-interest. The next five years will see local elections in which new candidates can bring new politics and, at a local level, deliver the hope and change that will allow ALL voters to believe that their local council is well run, just and that Labour will run the Government well as they do their local council. It will not merely be a slogan," For the many, not the few” but a tangible reality.

My latest book “The Last Queen Of Scotland” is not just the biography of Scot, Kath Duncan the most important UK civil rights leader of the past 100 years, but also tells of the little known struggles and workers campaigns 1900-1954, the 1930s were her key period and one that we all should read up more on.

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