HARK the sound of panic from the Labour Establishment and its media backers, from the Sun to the Guardian, vainly trying to warn voters away from the surge in support for Jeremy Corbyn.

But Tony Blair’s warning of annihilation, along with those of Mandelson and Campbell, are a Canute-like chorus against a swelling tide caused by decades of neoliberal policies of new Labour and the Tories.

Essentially the middle ground, middle England voter to whom new Labour has always sworn its undying faith, has been whittled away as a voter demographic by the economic and social policies of the last 35 years, and especially of the last five years. The first signs of this were clear from the 2015 election — with the millions voting Ukip, SNP and Green.

The theory of Blairism was that the working class was disappearing, being replaced by a new middle class of aspirational voter, especially in the south of England and the Midlands where most elections were won or lost. 

This was the result of the policies of Margaret Thatcher, which deindustrialised Britain and turned many more people into homeowners, thanks to the Right to Buy policy, and also the culture of consumerism and the decline of trade unions.

In theory this change was irreversible and meant that the traditional Labour social base was being replaced by a new type of voter more naturally inclined toward consumerist and individualist — ie Tory — values. 

Hence New Labour’s shopping list approach to politics, with pledges and carefully triangulated messages — minimum wage, yes, but tough on welfare and immigration, and an insouciant acceptance of rising inequality.

Behind a lot of this was fear of the Tory media, which New Labour spent an enormous amount of energy cultivating in order to avoid the fate of Neil Kinnock. Recall Blair’s early meetings with Rupert Murdoch in Australia and of course, his role model, Margaret Thatcher.

However, it makes no historical sense whatsoever to believe that the moderate centre-left appeal of early Blairism that worked in 1997 after 18 years of Toryism is in any way relevant to the 2020 election. 

The biggest party in recent elections has been the non-voters — who in 2015 were 34 per cent to the Tories’ 24 per cent. 

These are the people Russell Brand says he represents — those who no longer have a stake in a political system that appeals to lower middle and middle-class homeowners. 

As for traditional Labour voters — public-sector workers and carers among them — they were always treated with contempt by Blair. But in Corbyn, they at last have a candidate who unashamedly shares their values.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, the social divisions caused by a policy of deregulation and privatisation have accelerated. And it is clear who has lost out — average wage earners, young people, renters and others, such as those on in-work benefits and zero-hours contracts, who have suffered declining living standards while often apparently treated by our political class as the great unwashed whose votes don’t count.

Home ownership is in decline, private-sector renting is moving toward nine million, zero-hours contracts have rocketed, foodbank use has become a commonplace. In this deeply divided country where the wealthiest 0.1 per cent saw their assets double in value since 2008, for whom austerity is what happens to the little people, Corbyn is the answer to the question — who stands up for us?

This is the socio-economic soil from which the Corbyn surge emerges and is only surprising to those living in a privileged Westminster-media-west-London bubble. It is not going away.