FOLLOWING the appalling election result, it is remarkable how (old) New Labour theorists are crawling from the woodwork and peeling themselves from the bottom of barrels to say Labour lost the election because they were too left wing.

The BBC in particular has been enthusiastic about this delusion.

No-one can actually point to any actual left wing policies but they are all telling us that it was a big mistake for Miliband to turn his back on the brilliant strategists of New Labour.

Unfortunately he didn’t but let’s leave aside the politics for now and just look at the electoral arithmetic.

In 1997 Labour won under Blair because of mass disgust at the Tory government’s record. A jackal could have won and, as it turned out, had done.

We then had elections in 2001, 2005, and 2010. In none of these subsequent elections did the election geniuses of New Labour – the (other) Miliband, Mandelson and Blair – get more votes than Miliband just lost, rendering their advice somewhat useless. So now faced with full-scale privatisation of the NHS, further shifts of wealth from workers to the rich, what side will the Labour Party be on?

PETER SMITH Woodside Avenue Swindon