Labour drifting to the left again would be a disaster

The article by Lynsey Hanley represents the usual lack of reality that is typical of the left (I’ve drifted left with age, not right. If only Labour would do the same, 15 August). It really isn’t that long ago that Labour did drift left. Rather than an “incredible surge of enthusiasm and optimism”, the British public ended up rewarding Boris Johnson, of all people, with a huge majority, after it had gifted Theresa May’s worst campaign in history with an extra 2.3m votes over those won by David Cameron in 2015.

Jeremy Corbyn provided a never-ending supply of material for the Tories and the rightwing press, and his cruel recent take on denying Ukraine the ability to defend itself confirms how right the voters were to reject him. Nostalgia for that period will, of course, continue among the middle-class leftists who don’t really need a Labour government, but for those who want a rational alternative to the Tories, it will always and rightly be regarded with contempt.
Matthew Young
London

• The issue with Lynsey Hanley’s piece is that the median voter is a homeowning 55-year-old plumber from Worcester with a household income of about £35k. As it’s 2022, they’ll support gay marriage and net zero. But they aren’t going to want lots of changes from the status quo.

I appreciate that it’s frustrating for younger people who don’t own houses – but if Keir Starmer wants to be prime minister he has to position himself as someone the voters in the middle could support. And while he could generally be a little bolder, I think he is doing pretty well at that.

If younger people want more influence, they also need to turn up and vote at election time, as the older homeowners do.
Matthew Hutton
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire

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