John Harris rightly warns of the spread of rightwing populism on both sides of the Atlantic and the risk to Labour’s majority at the next election, given Reform UK’s strong showing in many Labour seats (Populism has plenty of false promises to solve Britain’s problems. Labour will need to expose them, 22 July). He calls for a senior Labour politician to expose the scam of “a party founded and led by privately educated opportunists” presenting itself as “the voice of ordinary people”, though it has to be said that this presented no barrier to the success of the Etonians who achieved Tory victories in 2010 and 2019.
Addressing populism will require both a focus on improving living standards and developing a convincing story around the bigger policy areas of tackling inequality, restoring public services and preventing environmental catastrophe, all of which will take time. It is therefore doubly unfortunate that Labour’s leadership, in no current danger, has sought instead to marginalise its own internal critics, particularly over their opposition to the two-child benefit cap. In losing the Labour whip on an issue of principle, the rebels can count themselves in the company of such Labour luminaries as Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot. When Labour reverses its current policy, they may well, by analogy with the anti-Franco fighters who opposed fascism before it was a mainstream cause, come to be lauded as premature anti-austerians, who showed the way to defeat populism.
Dr Anthony Isaacs
London
