ACCORDING to the former MP for Darlington, and one-time Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, the Labour Party risks "political oblivion" if it elects Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

This seems to be a bit rich coming from someone whose politics and actions have helped to bring about the slide in Labour’s fortunes since he joined the Government in 1997.

First of all Tony Blair did not win the 1997 General Election. The Tories lost it.

John Major’s government was tainted with sleaze as well as without credibility over the economy and Europe.

There was barely a week went by in the last five years of the Major government without some form of sex or financial scandal.

Had genial John Smith (who tragically died in 1994) led the Labour Party in 1997 then the majority would have been even bigger. A donkey could have led Labour to victory in 1997.

The Tories should have been out of office for 30 years after the crushing defeat of 1997, but Tony Blair and his cronies like Alan Milburn, did everything that they could to revive the Tories fortunes.

Between 1997 and 2010, when Mr Milburn left Parliament, the Labour vote fell from 13.5 million to 8.6 million, and who was to blame? Left wingers perhaps?

It wasn’t the left which took us into an illegal war in Iraq, which Mr Milburn voted for. It wasn’t the left which gave the bankers a free hand to fleece the public and bring about the biggest financial crisis since 1931. It wasn’t generally left wing MPs who got their noses into the trough over the expenses scandal. And it wasn’t the left which introduced privatisation to the NHS.

It is good to see Jeremy Corbyn ruffling a few feathers. He probably won’t win, but he is a good, honest man and a genuine socialist. Good luck to him.

J Gilmore, Bishop Auckland.