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The leadership race, after the shock of election defeat, can bring together left and right, and jolt the gloating Tories
The world is burning, Donald Trump has lobbed a bomb into a tinderbox and the new year starts ominously. But here on a small island, friendless in its self-imposed isolation, a broken opposition party begins the painful process of pulling itself out of the ashes of catastrophic defeat. It’s small potatoes on the global stage; but as Labour launches its search for a new leader, it can now either confirm its irrelevance, or plant the seeds of recovery – “win or die”, as Angela Rayner warned on Monday.
Before there’s any talk of winning elections, for five long years the country will need the Boris Johnson government to face a rapier-sharp opposition, a fearsome defender of rights at risk, and a forensic exposer of shams and dishonesties. This boastful “prime minister for everyone” will need puncturing, with his fanciful new year promises of a “fantastic year and a remarkable decade of prosperity and opportunity”. Continue reading...