Having averted the most immediate threat, Theresa May is back in No 10. And after her contrition before the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, some within the commentariat would like us to feel some pity for her. But there will be no pity from me – and not just because a few weeks ago she was hoping to obliterate the party I love, and any semblance of a constitutionally necessary opposition. Rather it is because, however abject a figure she cuts now, it is important to retain the memory of who she is and what she stands for. We must organise to take this government down.

Theresa May lays bare ambition to capture Labour heartlands Read more

Remember that when she was home secretary gay refugees felt obliged to film themselves having sex to prove to her officials – following her orders – that they were indeed gay, to avoid being deported to countries that would imprison, injure or murder them.

Remember that she sent those vans emblazoned with “Go home” into ethnically mixed areas. Go home: a phrase that haunts the childhoods of many minority British citizens; a callous act designed to whip up bigotry.

Remember that, during her deceitful campaign against the Human Rights Act, she spread the untruth that an illegal immigrant couldn’t be deported because he had a pet cat.

Remember that after setting immigration targets she knew she could never reach, at the 2015 Conservative party conference she issued an anti-immigrant rant so poisonous and dishonest that even Tory delegates I spoke to afterwards spat out their disgust.

This was her record prior to the calamitous, insulting electoral campaign that may prove to be her nemesis. Let us note the woes of Theresa May. But don’t waste time feeling sorry for her.

Focus instead on the Conservative party, and ask yourself: does it have the capacity for shame? The Tories have spent the past two and a half years claiming that they are the only force that can save Britain from the chaos and disorder represented by the Labour party. But look at where we are. Britain has spent over a year embroiled in the worst political turmoil since the end of the war – and all because of this incompetent party and its partisan ruses. David Cameron offered a referendum on EU membership not because he believed it to be in the national interest, but because it would defuse the threat to his party from Ukip. The Tories then ran a tone-deaf remain campaign based on threats of economic calamity, having spent years stirring up resentment about immigration, thereby gifting the initiative to those who campaigned to leave.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May speaking in the House of Commons in its first sitting after the election. Photograph: PA

In the political upheaval that followed, I suggested that Cameron – who, true to this arrogant type, now offers his successor advice – was the worst prime minister on his own terms since Neville Chamberlain. Historians reprimanded me: Chamberlain, after all, had presided over prewar re-armament. I actually had to go back to Lord North who, in the late 18th century, was prime minister when the American colonies were lost. But May may yet prove worse than him.

This arrogance, this recklessness, seems rooted in the DNA of the Conservative party. They are not like, say, the Christian Democrats of Germany and other European countries; they are more like the US Republican right. They share the same viciousness, the same sense of entitlement, the same equation of dissent with treason and lack of patriotism, the same determination to smear opponents as dangerous extremists, the same demonisation of groups lacking power – whether immigrants or benefit claimants – for political gain.

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Always have in mind what the Tory party is. It is the political wing of the vested interests that fund it: a way to protect their economic interests in a democratic system where everyone has the vote. That is why such suggestions as the idea from the Harlow Tory MP Robert Halfon that it should rebrand as the Workers’ party gain no traction. It would be no more than yet another deceitful ruse. And what of Halfon? May just demoted him.

The Tories have presided over the longest squeeze in wages since the Napoleonic wars. Of the industrialised nations, only devastated Greece has suffered a worse decline. Figures this week show that real wages are once again falling. Meanwhile, the richest thousand Britons have enjoyed a doubling in wealth during one of the worst economic crises in modern British history. The Tories have promoted deregulation for big business, but imposed the most draconian legislation on Britain’s trade union movement in the western world.

George Osborne thinks May’s troubles are terribly funny because she sacked him and, as editor of the Evening Standard, he now has rotten fruit to pelt her with. But he is one of the architects of austerity Britain, where it is boom time for the mega-rich while millions suffer stagnation and decline.

If a Tory rebrand is to happen, could it be the Bankers, Bosses and Landlords’ Party?

The Tories champion a financial sector that plunged Britain into a terrible mess. They are stuffed with private landlords who vote down Labour proposals to make homes “fit for human habitation”. Their party doesn’t build council housing because that would “create Labour voters”. It demonises benefit claimants while lining the pockets of its tribe with millions of pounds of housing benefit. If a rebrand is to happen, could it be the Bankers, Bosses and Landlords’ Party?

This is a time to take stock of what we know, to review those memories. Because with May back in Downing Street, with the Democratic Unionist party acting as jailer and protector, it is important to keep in mind why Labour and all progressive forces must act with unremitting urgency. Jeremy Corbyn has asked all Labour MPs to be on a permanent election campaign footing. That should apply to all of us. Joining Labour must mean more than a shiny membership card. Keep knocking on doors, particularly in the marginals. Encourage every young person to register to vote. Take to the streets.

The movement is buzzing with excitement. It should be. But this is the dangerous time, for the prime minister seeks to smother any challenge – to continue interrupted, but essentially as before, in the hope that her opponents lose or relinquish the initiative. She seeks the sanctuary of a new normal, but she must not have it. Labour’s advance shouldn’t breed complacency. Don’t just cheer. Organise.