The Labour Party is going through a midlife crisis. After enduring its worst electoral defeat since the 1930s, it is struggling to find its identity in a post–Brexit United Kingdom. As party members and activists begin the soul searching that will be crucial to its future, the media spotlight on the Labour leadership election has exposed the gulf between average voters and Labour activists.

Nothing illustrated this gulf better than the 2018 Labour Party Conference, when a debate about the Israel Palestine conflict - a territorial conflict three thousand miles away from the UK – was prioritised by members over a debate about the social care crisis. This example doesn’t exist in isolation: such a choice is symptomatic of a party dominated by fringe movements that speak a language most voters don’t understand. It’s fair for political activists to be concerned about human rights and international affairs. But why would users of food banks, and victims of Tory austerity, care about Palestine? Or Venezuela?

Usually, fringe debates and movements remain on the margins of our politics. Few in the general public care whether you’re a Trotskyite or a Stalinist, or whether the Bolivian bus system works smoothly. In some cases, it is true that fringe movements can have a positive impact on policy, but it is also true that they seldom reach outside their political bubble. But all this has changed in the last two months.

The Labour leadership election has brought fringe topics to the national stage, and debates previously exclusive to twitter are now discussed on national television. In the last week alone, Lisa Nandy has claimed that she would vote to abolish the monarchy in any referendum on the matter – a stance that is likely to be popular with the Labour membership, but is at odds with the 80 per cent of British citizens that, according to YouGov, have a positive view of the Queen. To some extent, this kind of appeal to an ideological minority is an inevitable outworking of the party system.

Labour Party members are not average voters, and leadership candidates need to win over the hearts and minds of its hardcore activists before they have the opportunity to take on the political establishment in Westminster.

The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Show all 8 1 /8 The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Keir Starmer The former director of public prosecutions undoubtedly has announced that he is standing for the leadership. He is highly-regarded by both left-wingers and centrists in the party. As Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, he played a key role in the party’s eventual backing of a second referendum. Before becoming an MP, he was a human rights lawyer - conducting cases in international courts including the European Court of Human Rights. Launching his bid, Starmer said that Labour must listen to the public on how to change "restore trust in our party as a force for good." A YouGov poll places him comfortably in the lead as the preferred candidate of 36% of party members EPA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Lisa Nandy Wigan MP Lisa Nandy has announced she wil stand for the leadership. In a letter to the Wigan Post she said she wanted to bring Labour "home" to voters in its traditional strongholds who have abandoned the party. Nandy went on to say that she understands "that we have one chance to win back the trust of people in Wigan, Workington and Wrexham." A YouGov poll shows that Nandy is the first preference for 6% of partymembers. Getty The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rebecca Long Bailey A key ally of the current left-wing leadership of the party, the Salford & Eccles MP is viewed in some quarters as the natural successor to Mr Corbyn and describes herself as a “proud socialist”. Highly regarded by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. She won also won plaudits for her performance filling in for Corbyn both at prime minister’s questions and during the general election debates. The shadow business secretary grew up by Old Trafford football ground and began her working life serving at the counter of a pawn shop. Launching her leadership bid, Long Bailey said the party needs to make the positive case for immigration as a "positive force." She also broke with Corbyn over Trident, saying "If you have a deterrent you have to be prepared to use it." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Angela Rayner - Deputy leadership Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has joined the contest for deputy leadership of the party. After ruling herself out of running for the leadership, the Ashton-under-Lynne MP launched her bid for deputy warning that Labour faces the "biggest challenge" in its history and must "win or die." She is close with leadership contender Rebecca Long Bailey PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Rosena Allin-Khan - Deputy leadership Shadow sport minister Rosena Allin-Khan said Labour need to listen with "humility" to lost voters as she launched her bid for the deputy leadership. Writing in The Independent, the MP for Tooting refelcted: "We shouldn’t have ignored the warning signs in Scotland, and now we’ve paid the price in northern England, across the midlands and in Wales." PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Dawn Butler - Deputy leadership Shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler was first to announce her bid for the deputy leadership. The Brent Central MP has served in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet since 2016 PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Ian Murray - Deputy leadership Labour's only MP in Scotland said that the architects of the party's "catastrophic failure" in the December election can not be allowed to lead the party forward PA The battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader Richard Burgon - Deputy leadership Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon is standing as a continuity candidate, flaunting his loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn and saying it is wrong to blame the current leader for the election defeat PA

But the media spotlight on these issues presents the Labour Party with a problem. If it is to win future elections, it must confront the reality that these fringe, self–aggrandising movements do nothing but damage Labour’s reputation nationally. Whoever becomes Labour leader in April will inevitably have an uphill battle for this very reason. Not only is Labour coming to terms with one of its worst electoral defeats in the Party’s history, the leadership election’s amplification of party infighting over peripheral topics has supplied the Conservatives with plenty of comedic ammunition. It will be phenomenally easy for the Conservatives to mock a party that is obsessed with debates about colonialism, gender identity and the Palestinian right of return. These are topics that are important, particularly to minorities, but appear irrelevant to the many voters who struggle to make ends meet.

Bread and butter policies will win back the Labour heartlands, but Labour must also stay true to its values. It must walk the tightrope of being electorally appealing while continuing to combat the nationalism and nativism that has become a staple of modern British politics. Principled and bold leadership will be key. The left is perceived as anti–British, self hating and anti–West. If it is to win again, Labour must rid itself of these perceptions. It can best do this by forging a new leftist British identity based on the positives of liberal democracy, individuality and the benefits of diversity.

The Labour Party should learn from the mistakes of the remain campaign, whose descent into political obscurity tells us what happens when political movements patronise voters. In this period of heightened racial tensions, the left should declare racism and injustice anti–British values. As one of the world’s oldest democracies, we have a moral imperative to stand against the erosion of British people’s rights. The country of magna carta, under this Conservative government, has become the country of forced deportation of long term British residents to Jamaica, of threatened political interference in our judiciary and of Downing Street aides who believe in eugenics. With our tradition of liberal democracy, is there anything more anti–British than these rejections of individual rights?