We need a left response to Brexit – and Labour can shape the debate

Yesterday was the most momentous of many of our political lifetimes. It certainly was for me. The referendum result has laid bare the deep divisions which fracture the country, but the reality – as anyone who’s knocked more than a few doors over recent years knows – is that the discontent, the disconnect and the fractures have all been there for really quite some time. What I can’t deny is that their exposure, in such a stark form and with such consequence, feels raw. But, painful as it is, it’s imperative that we on the left respond in the right way.

The political focus at present is on the effect of Cameron’s gigantic gamble on his party and the battle to succeed him. But, in our now much more uncertain future, not only is it vital that Labour and the left decisively shape the debate, but also that we recognise that only we have the will and the desire to heal some of the cracks – economic, cultural, geographic, social, generational.

Leaving the EU may well mean we move towards lower standards in workers’ rights, a greater degree of power for companies over individuals and less environmental protection. For good or ill, we will stand alone. In time, Scotland and Northern Ireland may seek the opportunity to choose a different path. Our position in the world and our influence, actual and perceived, is changed. It’s already clear that the economic impact will be significant. Protecting jobs and investment will be paramount in short-term.

Anyone who harbours any hope that the Tories can heal our divisions is going to be royally disappointed. They have spent the last 6 years exacerbating and fermenting the very issues which proved to be Cameron and Osborne’s undoing. They continually fed the immigration beast, only, ultimately, to be consumed by it themselves. Osborne starved the NHS of resources, only to make his opponents’ lie about £350 million of extra funding feel a desirable end.  Exactly the same applies to the crisis in primary school places: the shortage was entirely of Cameron and Osborne’s making and they have paid the price for its creation.

As for the future, it’s almost certain that the Tories will now lurch decisively to the right. We’re going to see a more extreme government – socially and economically. Xenophobic rhetoric will be rife as right-wingers compete to best woo the Tory membership. Figures like the ideologue Michael Gove and Priti Patel (who recently refused to say if she supports the death penalty) will likely be centre-stage. And obviously Boris – who, lest we forget, dismissed the American President’s comments on our EU affiliation on the basis of his “part-Kenyan” ancestry. This is precisely the polar, direct, complete opposite of what’s needed to bring the country back together.

What the country really needs a strategy to cope with the impact of Brexit that reflects the interests of the many, not just a few. It must be one that seeks to address the vast economic, social and geographic inequalities that we face, rather than one which makes them more stark. And it also has to be one which seeks to reconnect and unify, rather than blame and divide. In this new world, and now more than ever, Labour has to be the strong and powerful voice that the country needs us to be.

Lucy Rigby is a consumer law solicitor