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What a bloody disastrous night for Labour.

We won less seats than in 2010, we lost a leader, lost a shadow chancellor and lost the election. The party is now Ed-less.

We fought a presidential-type election based on computers, charts, focus groups and even the American language. Hell yes? Hell no!

It was designed to get 35 per cent of the electorate while Cameron focused on getting more than 50 per cent of the seats. And he won.

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But we didn’t lose this election on May 7, 2015.

We lost this election five years ago when we failed to defend our past economic record. And it makes me damn mad.

Labour sent me to 26 constituencies across the country. Time and time again I heard from the electorate the words of George Osborne.

Labour had ‘wrecked the economy’ and ‘you lot caused the recession’.

That daft ‘I’m afraid there is no money’ note from Labour Treasury minister Liam Byrne to his coalition successor didn’t help.

(Image: ITV West Country)

The Tories and Lib Dems worked tirelessly to sow the seeds of a myth which grew into a publicly accepted ‘fact’.

As President Clinton said: ‘It’s the economy stupid.’ And we were stupid not to defend it.

The global recession was caused by the greed of bankers and only Gordon Brown’s rescue plan saved the banks and our economy from total global collapse.

Even Osborne’s permanent secretary to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, has argued that the 2008 financial crisis was ‘a banking crisis pure and simple’.

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So why didn’t Labour challenge it at the time? Because we spent months on a leadership election where most candidates distanced themselves from Labour’s past record.

I said to both Eds – Miliband and Balls – that it was vital we nailed these Tory lies. But I was told: ‘We want to focus on the future John, not the past.’

I warned them if we didn’t defend the past we wouldn’t have a future. This election has depressingly proved that.

But it wasn’t just that. There were other open goals where Labour fluffed it. I lobbied hard to make housing a big part of our election campaign.

I wanted to see our party promote ‘rent to own’ mortgages like the successful Gentoo Genie, where you buy a home in instalments without a deposit.

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Raising even a subsidised deposit is one of the biggest barriers for first-time buyers. The scheme made it into one manifesto – the Lib Dem one, not ours!

We should have done more to highlight our work on the environment and seeking a deal on climate change – a problem that will affect generations and the future of this planet.

Instead, we spent more time talking about cutting and freezing our energy bills.

And in the Scottish referendum, Labour became too close to the Tories and the Lib Dems in the Better Together campaign.

Why didn’t we concentrate on a Labour No campaign and let the Tories and Lib Dems do their own?

It allowed the SNP to paint Labour as ‘Red Tories’ and for Labour to be used by the Conservatives as a whipping boy for the Scots Nats.

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Just as they did in 1979, the SNP stopped a Labour government and helped the Conservatives.

The North of England must now demand a stronger voice for their people.

The North has a greater population, industry and wealth than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together.

In the constituencies I visited, the demands to treat the North to a similar share of resources and powers as Scotland are becoming louder and louder.

Devolution to the regions is what they’re asking for – not a centralised English parliament.

Now we face an EU referendum that will dominate the media for two years, frighten off large businesses and provide SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon with the excuse to push for another independence vote.

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So what’s the future for Labour? We need a clear difference between ourselves and the Tories.

Another common refrain on the doorstep was that we all seemed the same.

We need to build on the successes of what we achieved in Government – NHS waiting lists from operations down from 18 months to 18 weeks, the longest period of continuous growth since the war, reduced crime through neighbourhood policing and huge improvements in our schools.

We won three elections in a row by appealing to people’s aspirations and helping them get on in life.

Our next leader needs to have the passion, the guts and ability to appeal to take on the Tories and appeal to town and country, North and South.

We won in the past because Labour put its traditional values in a modern setting. It’s time we did that again.

We need not New Labour or Old Labour, but Now Labour.