Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett’s pamphlet ‘Northern Discomfort,’ confirmed a suspicion that Northern Labour members have long shared. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour took great strides in returning the party to its traditional values – but in a general election framed by Brexit, it was blown away in many of its heartlands. The coronavirus crisis emphasises the need for a Labour government, but it is increasingly clear that there won’t be one without building a coalition to win back those seats. As the leadership election draws to a close members should be asking, which of the candidates is best placed to do that?

The Brexit factor of our seat losses cannot be overstated; out of the 60 seats Labour lost, 52 voted Leave in 2016. Of those 52 seats, 46 were in the North and the Midlands. The loyalty of Labour Leave voters was greatly over-estimated and to many, the party’s compromise position felt like a betrayal. That’s why a great number of Labour members living in ‘Red Wall’ constituencies like mine are concerned about a Starmer leadership. We are concerned not just because Starmer was the chief architect of a Brexit policy that proved so disastrous on the doorstep, but because he has refused even to rule out campaigning to rejoin the EU in the future.

Clearly, in this leadership election, Starmer’s Remain position has proven popular. The problem for many Northern members, including those who also voted Remain, is that living in Leave constituencies we can see that regardless of how Brexit eventually pans out, the Brexit culture war could last a generation or more. Already, after December’s election defeat, we’ve seen how the government has built an enormous poll lead on the basis of carrying out Brexit and promising to invest in the North. This has continued to grow despite its botched response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Rather than Leave voters experiencing buyer’s remorse, there has been a doubling down of positions. Responding to this by electing a politician so associated with Remain – and even flirting with rejoin – would be a serious mistake. A common response to this line of argument has been to tell me that, by the time of the next election, none of this will be an issue. Northern seats voted for Boris, after all, they will happily doff their caps for an establishment politician from the South. This seems to be yet another underestimation of the deeply-held beliefs which produced this Conservative majority.

At this moment what Labour needs is a leader who can reach out and heal the Brexit divides, someone who can resonate in the North and Midlands and respond to the desire to ‘take back control.’ To my mind, that leader is Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Lisa Nandy has a strong analysis of why we lost seats in the North and the Midlands, but her proclamation that Labour must change or die has been followed by relatively little detail about what this might mean. The 2017 and 2019 manifestos were packed with policies that addressed many of the issues postindustrial towns and regions face. Discarding these out of a desire to be seen as ‘respectable’ by lobby journalists who will never give Labour a fair hearing would be counterproductive.

Through this coronavirus pandemic, the next Labour leader will be required to put forward an ambitious vision for Britain. It’s already clear that the coming recession will blow old economic models out of the water and justify many of the Left’s policy arguments. That is why Rebecca Long-Bailey’s argument for ‘aspirational socialism’ is so important. While it has caused some hesitation on the Left among those worried by its New Labour connotations, Long-Bailey’s reclamation of the word couldn’t have come at a better time. Many people’s aspirations will be badly damaged by this crisis – we need a government who can raise the prospect of meeting them by collective action.

While Corbyn’s ‘for the many, not the few’ articulated the moral case for socialism that successfully shifted the public debate on austerity, Long-Bailey’s aspirational socialism is central to her plan to make an economic case. This has the potential to build a coalition of voters who might have agreed with many of Labour’s policies in December, but did not trust or believe that it could deliver them. Building the economic case is therefore vital, because it builds a positive case for socialism that is rooted in the aspiration of a better life for everyone.

There is no clearer example of how this will work in practice under Long-Bailey’s leadership than the Green Industrial Revolution (GIR). In working-class areas that have had their industries decimated by Thatcher and been ignored by successive governments, the GIR promises not only an answer to climate change – it promises to pull us out of the coming recession with well-paid, unionised jobs. It is no surprise then that this policy polled well in the ‘red wall.’ What the GIR addresses, and in fact what her entire policy platform amounts to, is the restoration of civic pride. Industry has historically served as a cornerstone of communities and its loss has been keenly felt.

But Rebecca Long-Bailey is not only promising a Green Industrial Revolution, she is promising a democratic revolution – in both the party and inthe country. While she has committed to empowering the movement at the grassroots through open selections and providing political education to nurture our talent and bring people on in the party as an organising force, she has also made clear that she wants to revitalise our trade unions through a membership drive. She has said that she will back workers in every dispute and strike against exploitative employers – and recent weeks have reminded us just what a threat they are to our social fabric.

What better way to answer a hard-right Tory government that claims the mantle of workers’ interests than with a working-class woman from a Leave-voting area promising to renew the socialist movement in workplaces across the country? Restoring people’s faith in democracy so that they feel that it works for them is going to be crucial. The next Labour leader must first regain the trust of voters who felt they could not vote for us in 2019. Clearly, the relentless attacks by the media over the last 5 years have made the Left battle-weary. But the circumstances won’t change that dramatically for whomever follows Jeremy Corbyn.

We will need to be bold to cut through the media hostility and reach voters. In recent weeks, Rebecca Long-Bailey has shown that ambition – coming out in support of a National Food Service, a Universal Basic Income and a public company to produce vital equipment for the NHS. It is striking that she has been almost alone is rising to this challenge. As she was earlier in the campaign, when she proposed a dedicated media rebuttal unit and social media team – the only clear strategy in the field for overcoming Labour’s media woes.

The country is currently faced with a popular, right-wing Tory government that claims the mantle of speaking for One Nation – across classes and regions. Our response must not be to narrow our coalition and desert the millions of Leave voters who would benefit from Labour’s policies in the last general election. Rebecca Long-Bailey has shown she has the ideas to respond to both December’s defeat and the current moment. Members should take note.