In his comprehensive report into why Labour lost the 2015 General Election, Jon Cruddas broke down the electorate into 3 broad but distinct groups — the affluent, socially liberal Pioneers, pragmatic Prospectors and socially conservative Settlers. Last May Labour suffered badly at the hands of two of these groups (The Prospectors and The Settlers). It was only the Pioneers who embraced Miliband’s message;

“…the Pioneers who currently make up 34 per cent of voters. They are spread evenly through different age groups. Pioneers are socially liberal and more altruistic than most voters. They are at home in metropolitan modernity and its universalist values. As the name suggests they value openness, creativity, self-fulfilment and self-determination. They are more likely to vote according to their personal ideals and principles such as caring and justice. They tend to be better off and to have been to university. They now make up a large majority of the Labour Party membership.”

These were my people, they lived in my circles and made up my social world. On the surface, the Pioneers were Labour’s greatest strength, but the in fact they were Labour’s Achilles heel. This is because the progressive middle class had one great fallibility, self-indulgence. It was these people who last summer destroyed the Labour Party.

As it became clear that my CLP was on the verge of nominating Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, I stood up and pleaded with them to learn the lessons from our defeat. I argued that we needed a candidate who will win us seats from Nuneaton to Dover to Great Yarmouth. Outside of our middle class liberal bubble, Labour was becoming a toxic brand. We were becoming seen as a Party solely for the liberal elite. Therefore we needed to look outwards and challenge these assumptions, not indulge them. We needed a Labour leader who can win back those who thought we weren’t credible in running the economy. We needed a leader who would listen to socially conservative voters worried about immigration, and challenge their assumptions that we have an ‘open door’ policy. Basically, we needed to win over voters who didn’t scoff at The Sun or dismiss the Daily Mail. Here we were, a stone’s throw from Goldsmith’s university, in the heart of metropolitan inner London — Labour will always win here.

My pleas fell on deaf-ears. I watched as rational, educated individuals hugged the warm blanket of electoral myths. I watched as my comrades sank into self-indulgence. For decades the Left have hung on to the idea that amongst the large numbers of non-voters, there is a secret well of staunch left-wingers waiting on the day that we build Jerusalem. If only we had a candidate who could reach out to them. Yet there is no evidence that non-voters lean predominantly to the Left. Immediately after the election The Trade Union Congress produced a wealth of polling on the attitudes of non-voters. When asked what prevented non-voters from supporting Labour, the top 4 responses were: 35% ‘don’t know’, 30% ‘they can’t be trusted with the economy’, 23% ‘they would make it too easy for people to live on benefits’, 22% ‘they would raise taxes’. That hardly sounds like the talk of ardent social democrats.

Time and time again Scotland was used as a stick to beat pragmatism with. Yet the idea that Labour lost their seats in Scotland because they were too centrist doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. It was clear that moving to the Left in an attempt to win a handful of seats in Scotland while alienating the Tory voters we needed to win over across England, would be an act blind self-destruction. And it was. Moving to the Left in Scotland helped the Tories to portray themselves as the credible Unionist voice in Scotland. The SNP crushed Labour earlier this month. Humiliatingly, Labour are now the third biggest Party in Scotland.

Perhaps the most pervasive myth reeled out verbatim in stuffy community halls across the land was that Labour lost because they were ‘pro-austerity’. This independent inquiry into Labour’s defeat revealed that the opposite was true; the Tories didn’t win despite austerity, they won because of it. The result was brutal for the Left. Voters instead rejected Labour because they perceived the Party as anti-austerity lite. 58% agree that, ‘we must live within our means so cutting the deficit is the top priority’. Just 16% disagree. Almost all Tories and a majority of Lib Dems and Ukip voters agreed.

The idea Labour lost because they were ‘pro-austerity lite’ was a comforting falsehood for many of us on the Left. Like many liberal-lefties I believed that austerity was an unnecessary burden that hit the poorest while stunting growth. I didn’t believe we could cut our way out of recession. I too went on marches to voice my opinion in the hope that someone other the people walking next to me would listen. I don’t think anyone did.

Time and time again I was told that people voted for the Conservatives instead of Labour because they were ‘basically the same’, and this meant Labour wasn’t far enough to the Left. It was a favoured argument by a chattering-Left whose lives would be relatively untouched by tax-credit cuts or benefits caps. Why would a voter, annoyed at Labour being ‘pro-austerity lite’, disappointed they weren’t left-wing or radical enough, choose to go and vote Conservative? It is counter-intuitive, and this argument is downright illogical. To argue this point is to simply pedal wilful ignorance.

When Ed Miliband spoke the Pioneers nodded along and mostly liked what they heard. When Jeremy Corbyn spoke they hollered and cheered. Jeremy spoke the language that fired up the narrow membership. “Look at the crowds he draws! Can’t you tell that this a movement?” eager friends would tell me. A few older, wiser voices, had seen it all before, those who had seen the mass rallies of the early 80s and damning consequences of delusion. As MP John Golding recalled, when telling Michael Foot how bad the polls were. `He said, “You’re wrong. There were a thousand people at my meeting last night and they all cheered.” And I said, “There were 122,000 outside who think you’re crackers.” I didn’t want me generation to go through the experience that my parents’ did.

When the Labour Party listens to, and speaks to, all sections of society, it is the greatest force of progressive change this country has ever known. If I could prove what great things an outward-looking Labour Party could achieve, then maybe people would have a change of mind. Yet the more I spoke out, the more isolated I felt. When I pointed out the record of the New Labour government that offered me so much as I was growing-up, I was attacked by Labour members as a quisling sell-out. When I criticised the party leadership I was labelled as a ‘Red Tory’ and ‘Blairite scum’.

The self-righteousness of the metropolitan left combined with the cultism of the far-left has created a toxic cocktail of absolutism and puritanism within the Labour Party. If you are a Labour member and speak out against this ‘New Politics’ you will be confronted with a wall of vitriol or worse.

Labour’s results in regional elections earlier this month were what was expected. Labour have gone backwards since last May. Since 1988, there has always been movement towards the main opposition after one year of a parliament. Since 1974 and excluding general election years, opposition parties have always gained seats in local elections — with the exceptions of 1982, 1985 and now 2016.

Labour’s lead from this election result was 1%, which matches the movement from Blair’s landslide in 1997 to Hague’s Conservatives in 1998. While Hague was battling a Blair government, post landslide, enjoying his honeymoon period; Corbyn’s Labour were up against a Tory government that has had a shambolic year and has been split down the middle by the EU referendum. A credible opposition would have crushed the Tories this month. Ipsos-Mori have said that given Labour’s collapse in Scotland, they would need to win the 2020 election by 13% to form a government.

The ‘alternative Media’ will promote self-serving half-truths without a care in the world. Lonely op-eds in the liberal press will attempt to spin a pleasant web of delusion. But the truth is Corbyn’s politics cannot reach beyond his base. Labour’s few successes in the last elections came in places with a large middle class graduate or public sector base. As Stephen Bush of the New Statesman put it: “places where people put wind chimes in their front door”.

A middle class liberal cannot understand a working class individual voting for the Tories (because surely it would be against their economic interests, no?). The liberal middle class cannot understand working class voters, so they are instead treated with a gentle disdain. Just look that how the Labour Party now talks about immigration. Simply repeating that freedom of movement is “generally good thing” and “migration is a plus to our economy”, is patronising and paternalistic towards socially conservative voters. We can’t just tell working class people what is good for them and expect their vote.

Studies have shown that socially conservative Settlers were more likely than other values groups to mention immigration, toughness on welfare, standing up for our country, Europe (either a referendum or pulling out) and fiscal responsibility. All the things Corbyn is weak on. The Labour Party has given up fighting for its working class base.

Jeremy Corbyn’s brand of old-school socialism attracted “high-status city dwellers” in the summer and they still like what they hear from him. Even after a woeful 9 months in which Corbyn’s leadership has looked rudderless and ineffective. Even when Labour look on course to suffer a defeat in 2020 even worse than under Ed Miliband. Labour members would still overwhelmingly vote for Mr Corbyn if a leadership ballot was triggered.

To the middle-class liberals, the difference between the centrist Labour government and a Tory government seem academic. Anyway, a Tory government creates a righteous fire in our bellies and each protest we’ll plan for their fall. Of course we hate their cuts, but they won’t actually ruin our lives. So here we are, the Labour Party is becoming a minority party of sectional interests of a liberal middle class.

We’ll share righteous memes, and lament Jeremy Hunt, stage measly marches in the name of ‘the people’. We’ll have twitterstorm after twitterstorm and we’ll feel like we’re making a difference. But we won’t be. The Labour Party is sleep-walking to electoral oblivion, but hey, at least we’ll be feeling good about ourselves.