'Labour lost touch with what the working classes felt and thought'

TONY Blair saved the party after nearly two decades in the wilderness with his New Labour revolution. It felt modern, fresh and full of optimism.

- Sam Lister Associate Editor

But along the way, it lost touch with what the working classes felt and thought.

Ordinary people had modernised, too. They were not the cloth-capped stereotype of the 1970s, but the values remained largely the same. Labour stopped listening. Where was the outrage from the party when mass migration from the European Union undercut the wages of plumbers, bricklayers, decorators and so on?

Is it any wonder that there are no longer enough tradesmen around to build the houses the country needs? When we imported so many workers, they pushed down earnings but many have now returned home.