Labour’s persistent failure to address its electorate’s salient concerns is behind the protest vote, asserts DIANE ABBOTT
MEDIA pundits and anti-socialist Labour MPs are still queuing up to pronounce last week’s local election results in England a triumph for the Tories and a defeat for Jeremy Corbyn.
But one aspect of the results is beyond question. Last Thursday dealt a near fatal blow to Ukip.
The party lost all but three of the 126 council seats it was defending, taking Ukip to the brink of the political grave. The other, more toxic, British National Party failed to stand any candidates at all. Since its high water mark in 2009, when the BNP could boast 55 local councillors, the “party” — if that’s not too polite a word for a racist street gang in suits — has degenerated to the point of disintegration.
Once again Tower Hamlets is being targeted by anti-Islam campaigners, this time a revamped and radicalised version of Ukip — the far-right event is now banned by the police, but we’ll be assembling this Saturday to make sure they stay away, says JAYDEE SEAFORTH
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE



