As MP in Tony Blair’s old seat, Phil Wilson’s election defeat in 2019 was perhaps the most high profile of Labour’s red wall losses. Writing for The Northern Echo 18 months on, he says the party must look to the future – and believe in Britain – to win again.

I SPENT six weeks during the Hartlepool by-election campaigning for the Labour Party. The omens did not look good from the start. Knocking on doors of once Labour supporters the response was now: “Don’t know.” The numbers seemed significant.

As we neared election day, the response turned from “don’t know” to “not interested”. The by-election was like the 2019 general election, only this time without the anger. There was a quiet resignation. Voters had made up their minds. They weren’t going to vote Labour this time.

Many Labour supporters were disillusioned. Many thought the party had lost its way and couldn’t forgive Labour for offering them Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate for Prime Minister. It was bad enough offering them “the wrong brother” in Ed Miliband, but they thought Jeremy Corbyn was a “joke”. They didn’t think Labour was a serious political party. And if we didn’t take ourselves seriously, why should they.

It wasn’t just Jeremy Corbyn as an individual, it was also his world view, which they saw as unpatriotic and anti-British, and it was his fantasy manifesto which promised the earth with no way of paying for it.

The overhang from the Corbyn era still casts a long shadow over the Labour Party. Keir Starmer cannot bring the party from shadow into light in just a few months and the Covid pandemic has quite rightly focussed the country’s attention elsewhere.

In parts of the country like Hartlepool and County Durham, where the council is now in no overall control for the first time in a century, Labour needs to find a new and realistic way of communicating our values.

In some parts of County Durham you would believe the pits were still open when you talk to some Labour activists, or at least they wanted to return to the days when the pit wheels still dominated the landscape. You can’t run a political party on nostalgia. The last pit in Sedgefield closed in 1973. The world has moved on. It’s time for the Labour Party to do the same. When we look to the future and believe in Britain, Labour wins.

The last Labour government made profound changes in Hartlepool and Durham. We built new schools, invested massively in the NHS only to see that investment cut by the Conservatives. We introduced the minimum wage and tax credits to make work pay. But still, some in the Labour Party take great joy in trashing our record in Government.

If we don’t stand by our record why should anyone else?

If we do not learn the lessons of what propels us to victory and we keep losing, is it any surprise even our long-term supporters eventually start to look elsewhere.

Keir Starmer’s task is to break with Corbynism in all its manifestations and fancies. The Corbynista world view must be expunged from the party’s ranks and Keir has made a good start. Belief in country is central to the Labour creed. The Corbyn years undermined that. Those who do not belief in Britain have no place in the Labour Party because, if you don’t believe in your country, why do you want to govern it?

We made our appeal at the last election to those on welfare benefits and zero-hour contracts while attacking the very rich as if there’s nothing in between. But there is a whole swathe of the population between the two ends of the spectrum we do not attempt to engage. Our economic focus needs to be on creating wealth, not just spending wealth. Aspiration, opportunity as well as equality should drive Labour’s ambition.

Labour’s task is great, but can be overcome. The Conservatives will be found out when people start to look behind their façade of optimism.

Labour, however, cannot wait for the future to fall into its lap. We need to offer a future people can believe in.

Nostalgia for a past that never really existed is a dead end. Labour’s path to power can only be secured by reinvention to make us fit for the 21st Century and all the opportunities our region deserves to celebrate.