Can Labour rebuild its red wall without losing its cities? | Andy Beckett

The lost voters hate ‘scroungers’, liberal values and ‘political correctness’. Winning them back could come at a high price

Since Labour’s disorienting election defeat nine months ago, one political concept has dominated the discussion about how the party might find its way back to power. The “red wall”, a term coined by a Conservative pollster, James Kanagasooriam, a few months before the election, has been identified as the part of Britain central to Labour’s problems and prospects. Fail to recapture it from the Tories, the argument goes, and face being in opposition for ever.

It’s quite a significance to place on an uneven, broken line of constituencies across north Wales, the Midlands and northern England. Precise definitions of the red wall vary, and it includes seats still held by Labour. But the three dozen that fell here to the Tories last year add up to about 6% of Britain’s MPs. Even when the red wall was a Labour stronghold, more Labour MPs represented other places.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

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