• READING the New Journal, and all the angst focused against the current Labour leader, I think the matter needs a look at history.

In 1983 Michael Foot, Labour’s leftist leader, based in Hampstead while representing a collapsing steel town in Wales, had the worst disaster for his party since 1931. And the next leader lost the next two general elections in 1987 and again in 1992.

And as Neil Kinnock lost so must Jeremy Corbyn lose unless the Conservatives install a more questionable and threatening leader such as Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Times are rather different but the current Labour leader is no match for what the government party may yet produce as PM.

Remember the same party dumped Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and the quiet man who replaced her was more attuned to the electorate mood than the boisterous and track-record leftist Neil Kinnock.

We then endured more austerity and repossessions until the Labour landslide of 1997 later blown by the tragic error of war and unregulated lending.

GARY SMITH
NW2