Show caption ‘I fear that post-industrial places now represented by Conservative MPs will not get the support they need.’ A view of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Opinion Labour doesn’t have to wait five years to start rebuilding communities Alex Sobel In or out of power, my party’s future lies in communities reeling from the collapse of industry – and 10 years of Tory cuts Fri 20 Dec 2019 14.02 GMT Share on Facebook

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This election proved what many already knew. Labour has lost its connection with its core – the communities, many in the Midlands, Scotland and the north of England, it was established to represent. With a few honourable exceptions, the “red wall” has crumbled and Labour-held seats from Bolsover to North West Durham, Grimsby to Workington, have turned blue.

I don’t believe that what has happened is just a problem with Labour’s leadership. It’s much bigger than that. It’s bigger than Jeremy Corbyn, or a hostile media. I would argue that it’s bigger than Brexit. It’s what can now only be understood as a historical, structural issue. A loss of industry, decreased union power and slashed public services – coupled with the housing crisis, job insecurity and wage stagnation – have left communities broken and without representation.

This is not a new problem. Thirteen years of Labour government provided a sticking plaster, but a combination of tackling the symptom and not the cause, followed by nearly 10 years of grinding Tory austerity, has left post-industrial communities with a patchy idea, and no practical understanding, of what Labour can and will do for them. So how do we remedy that?

One idea is an organising model based on visible, practical and helpful grassroots action, delivered all year round. Advice hubs providing support could take the form of co-ops or social enterprises. They might provide benefits help, housing advice or a warm meal. They could be funded by the party, local fundraising efforts or trade unions and run with voluntary support. Some groups could aspire to owning the buildings from which they operate, creating real and long-term community anchors.

This is not a new idea. Unemployed workers’ centres were set up as a response by the TUC to the growing level of unemployment in the late 1970s. They provided advice, support and representation as well as organising on a larger scale. The idea of fighting for, and alongside, communities has taken form in Labour’s community organising taskforce, set up last year to “work with community leaders and Labour party members to build a sustainable coalition to effect and deliver social change and successful electoral outcomes”. It’s a positive start, but my view is that we must harness the power of our members and volunteers to provide constant support to communities, not just as a vehicle to campaign but as one to effect lasting change in our towns and cities.

Of course, MPs’ constituency offices can and do provide this function. In the last two years, my office has become a de facto advice centre. We have dealt with hundreds of cases relating to welfare benefits, inadequate housing and a whole litany of other issues – usually a direct result of the cruel austerity programme inflicted on the country. Dealing with individual casework is a valuable part of my role, but writing personal independence payment appeals for disabled constituents, offering housing advice, sending out food bank vouchers and trying to help people stuck in the immigration system all takes time. The cuts to Citizens Advice centres mean my office is often the first port of call when things go wrong, and it leaves me and my staff with little free time to tackle the root cause of the problems brought to us. Put simply, we are firefighting.

I often wonder how caseworkers in Conservative constituency offices deal with these cases. Usually the first half of any surgery about benefits is constituents asking: “How can this be allowed to happen?” How do Tory MPs explain this? They don’t. They instead refer constituents to the struggling advice services they have cut, with huge waiting lists, that are left to pick up the pieces. Or perhaps they simply don’t deal with the case at all, like the story I heard from an ex-caseworker about a Tory MP they worked for who refused to take on immigration cases as he “doesn’t believe in immigration”.

Labour needs not merely to reconnect with those communities who have felt the debilitating effects of deindustrialisation, but to be a party from and of them. This must start in the seats we have lost in former industrialised strongholds, now represented by Conservative MPs I fear will not give the support that is needed. Labour from opposition cannot reindustrialise, but Labour in its widest form – working alongside unions, Labour-run councils, local parties and the voluntary sector – can provide support that will in turn create resilience.

Frankly, I am tired. Of infighting, of endless reflection periods. Of arguments about which leader may or may not be the silver bullet, our ticket to electability. I know that my party is one of hope. It is also one made up of thousands upon thousands of activists who want a better country for themselves and the people around them. I want my party to make a tangible difference to marginalised communities, not just after electoral success, but all the time. Electoral success now needs to be earned through hard graft from the bottom up and away from the TV studios of Westminster.