New Labour leader needs to be patriotic and quell "toxic and divisive" voices, says caller

2 January 2020, 18:47 | Updated: 2 January 2020, 18:54

This caller said that the new Labour leader must be patriotic, strong on national defence and quell the "toxic and divisive" voices that overwhelmed the party in this election.

Joe from Brighton said Jeremy Corbyn's economic policies were not the issue for Labour: "I think the new leader has to be very patriotic, I think they need to come in and be strong on national defence, and I think they need to completely close the curtains on a lot of the identity politics which got so much traction during the last election."

He said that "strong voices" that talked on behalf of the Labour party in this election were "toxic and divisive."

Tom addressed Joe's comment on patriotism and quoted Rebecca Long-Bailey, a potential candidate for Labour leader, on her calls for "progressive patriotism" in a recent Guardian article.

The caller said he had no idea what that meant: "I read exactly what you're on about and it just struck me as noise. I think they have an idea what the problem is, which is why she wrote the piece she did."

He continued that he doesn't think this "current crop" can "use the language" needed.

Tom agreed, "People did perceive Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party to not really like or very much believe in Britain. The idea that you go around sticking the word progressive in front of patriotism to somehow make it more acceptable to those on the left, I don't really understand. And I don't think they do either."