The recent general election was the third such contest in four years. In between, there has been the referendum on the EU and local elections. Now, there are the London Mayoral and Assembly elections coming up in May.

However, before we reach that point, there is the small matter of who will be the next leader of the Labour Party. The field has been narrowed down to three: Rebecca Long Bailey, Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy.

The process to elect a new leader has been long and drawn out – some feel unduly so. There have been endless hustings, television interviews and analysis. Much of the media do not seem to realise that this is not the US Presidential election or The X Factor. We are not electing a president. Labour members and affiliates are electing a leader who is mandated to carry out the party’s programme as agreed at the annual conference. Leadership candidates can express their personal positions but the actual programme is decided by the party.

This was one of the things that confused people about the position that the Labour Party took on the EU referendum. The conference decided on the position, which was to be for a Labour government to negotiate a deal with the EU to leave and then for that offer to be put alongside the remain option in a second referendum.

The leader obviously has a big input on the decision but the final say was with the conference. On the face of it, the party got it wrong. The big difference between the party position at the 2017 and 2019 elections was Brexit.

I should add here that I am a Remainer and that I fully backed the position taken at the election on Brexit.

At the earlier election, there was a commitment to implement Brexit, in the last election there was not. It cost the party dear, especially in the north, but it was as a result of the democratic workings of the party, that the final offer was made to the electorate.

There were other contributory factors to Labour’s defeat, not least the relentless media attacks on the leader Jeremy Corbyn from the moment he was first elected in 2015.

The programme being offered in 2017 was popular. It very nearly led to a majority Labour government. No doubt those in the Conservative Party and their supporters in the media saw it was popular and that their best chance was to double down on the vilification of the leader. This they did, and it worked – we now face a Tory government with a majority of 80, effectively able to do what they like for the next five years.

The program offered by Labour in 2019 was really an extension of the earlier offering. It could have been communicated better and putting in add-ons during the campaign did not help, but was still popular. So the idea, pushed by some in the media that the new leader, whoever it is, should renounce the programme is ridiculous. It needs to develop and evolve. Features like the New Green Deal will prove to be ahead of their time.

What is needed now is unity. The different candidates have all stressed the need to learn the lessons of the past and pull together for the future. What is definite is that all parts of the party must get behind the new leader, if Labour are to form a government again.

  • Paul Donovan is a Redbridge Labour councillor for Wanstead village and blogger. See paulfdonovan.blogspot.com