'Labour should not be obsessed with Uxbridge defeat but celebrate Selby's historic victory'

Kevin Maguire says it's vital Labor improves communications and puts more effort into selling policies including cleaner air as pollution kills tens of thousands every year

25 0w, https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30533554.ece/ALTERNATES/r500/1_Selby-by-election.jpg lection.jpg 100 0w" alt="Newly elected Labor MP Keir Mather (centre) with Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer at Selby Football Club, North Yorkshire" content="https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30533554.ece/ALTERNATES/n615/1_Selby-by-election.jpg" width="160" height="90"/> Newly elected Labor MP Keir Mather (centre) with Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer at Selby Football Club, North Yorkshire (

Image: PA)

Keir Starmer and his team score an own goal, seemingly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Instead of celebrating both a historic win at Selby and the Liberal Democrats taking Somerton from the Tories, Labor played into the Conservatives' hands by obsessing over their defeat at Uxbridge.

To state, as Starmer did, that “we are doing something very wrong if the policies put forward by Labor end up on every Tory leaflet” is to surrender.

Everything Labor has ever achieved of any significance has been won in the face of Tory hostility and, no doubt, critical tracts.

British politicians Clement Attlee (left) and Aneurin Bevan (

Picture:

Getty Images)

Historic changes, from the creation of the NHS and the modern welfare state to minimum wages, fair work, social housing and equal rights for women and same-sex couples, have been made despite opposition from Tories.

Take his own advice and Starmer would let the Tories completely shape his next manifesto when, terrified of an inevitable attack, he abandons plans to, say, end tax breaks for private schools in order to spend the £1.5billion on better education for all children.

It is essential that the Labor Party improves its communications and does more to sell its policies, especially in favor of cleaner air at a time when pollution kills tens of thousands of people each year.

Extending the Ulez fee of £12.50 outside London to drive off roads less than one in 10 most polluting vehicles - a push back from the Conservative Department of Transport as well as Labor Mayor Sadiq Khan - is why Labor has simply failed in Boris Johnson's backyard.

But that's no reason to give up on what, admittedly, is a crude decision.

It's a reason to work harder to win hearts and minds and to improve a scrapping program to help drivers recover...