Labour cannot afford to be defensive about its election defeat and must engage in honest self-criticism, according to Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley. Writing in the Guardian, Phillips said that the average voter cares little for the party's soul-searching, and instead wants good schools, safe streets, and access to healthcare.
Phillips, who campaigned in difficult seats across the Midlands and the north, said that everywhere she went she heard the same message: voters did not believe a Labour government would deliver for them. 'They didn't trust us,' she wrote. 'They didn't trust the Tories either, but then they never expected to, so that letdown was lesser.'
The MP acknowledged that many activists inspired by Jeremy Corbyn are angry, but warned against directing that anger at voters. Instead, she called for 'cold, clear anger' to drive the party forward. She noted that in her own Leave-voting constituency, the swing away from Labour was small, which she attributed to a straightforward approach and an ability to disagree with good humour.
Phillips identified an 'existential problem' for Labour: the more working-class a constituency, the worse the result for the party. 'Too many don't believe we're better than the Tories,' she said. To win a majority, Labour would need to gain as many seats as in 1997, but she warned against simply reviving New Labour strategies, arguing that the coalition needed today is different: 'In the 1990s, Labour needed to bring middle-class voters into a coalition with a working-class base. Today we have the opposite problem.'
