WHEN knight of the realm Sir Keir Starmer finalised his front-bench team, many of the fears of Labour’s Corbynist left were realised. 

The appointments of rightwingers such as Jess Phillips, Wes Streeting and Stephen Kinnock are a devastating blow and a worrying indication of the future direction of the party. 

Understandably, many have already resigned their membership in protest. 

But in the midst of the most turbulent economic and political period in decades, the battle for the heart and soul of the Labour Party is not going to be won from the outside. 

For many of us, Jeremy Corbyn represented a collective value — that we could indeed make this world a better place and build a society and culture where socialist foundations could truly ensure that nobody gets left behind. 

For a generation raised on the neoliberal economic agenda, Corbyn’s victories in his leadership election were their first experience of collective victory against a rigged Establishment. 

Unfortunately, winning the battle of ideas against an election built on a right-wing populist Brexit ideal was a step too far — but this should and does not mean the end for the socialist project. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has quickly proven the failures of austerity. The decimation of the public sector, the welfare state and destruction of employment rights have ensured that we are now experiencing the worst catastrophe of our lifetimes. 

To put it into perspective, over 700 public-sector carers in Derbyshire have been left without PPE, and at least one I know personally has become very ill after contracting the virus. 

This is more than a disgrace — and those who have continued to roll out the free-market agenda at the behest of a financial elite since the dark days of Margaret Thatcher must be held to account. 

The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to result in one of the most brutal eras of austerity that our society has ever seen. 

While the Tory government may be making small gestures and adopting an interventionist strategy in order to prop up the economy, its ideology dictates that this will not last, and the cost in terms of human lives will be great. 

Many local authorities and essential services, already at financial breaking point before the pandemic, will go bankrupt without a desperately needed rescue package. 

For the vulnerable and impoverished in our society, the future is very bleak. 

This is why the battle for ideas within the Labour Party is now even more important than ever. 

We need to ensure on behalf of our communities that both the government and the Labour leadership are held to account. 

A return to austerity-lite simply will not suffice, and a shift back to the neoliberal economic agenda will be a disaster for both the party and our society. 

The ideals that were fundamental to the Corbyn movement must carry on — and this can only be done if committed socialists remain. 

From within the party we can continue to influence the direction of policy and our stake in society. Leave and we risk isolating those of us on the left who are committed to fundamental societal change. 

We must use the democratic reforms made under Corbyn to this effect. While, disgracefully, we are still not at the point of having open selections for parliamentary candidates, the reforms achieved under Corbyn following the democracy review have ensured that we still have a much greater influence over accountability — and to waste this would be criminal. 

Organising for conferences will be vital, and yet again this can only be done from within.

The report titled The Work of the Labour Party’s Governance & Legal Unit in Relation to Anti-Semitism, 2014-2019 shows how undemocratic machinations have been embedded in the party’s structures over recent years. 

Leaked WhatsApp conversations, emails and further documentary evidence show that the gaslighting, abuse and attempted purging of the left has now been proven to be more than conspiracy theory or paranoia, as so often claimed by the right. 

One staffer stated: “Everyone here considers anyone left of [Gordon] Brown to be a ‘trot’.”

Socialist MPs such as the continually harangued Diane Abbott were humiliated, with an outrageous exchange in which staff members gloated that she was crying in the toilet, and that they had informed showboating sensationalist reporter Michael Crick of her location. 

In undermining the party, Labour rightwingers undermined all the hard work of the Labour foot soldiers who were desperately trying to elect a socialist Labour government. 

But this was not just a betrayal of the party, the membership or the leadership: it was a betrayal of all the people who have been suffering at the hands of the Tories — and is unforgivable. 

It is clear from the report that the right within the party will do anything they can to ensure that every socialist within Labour is driven out. But leave now and we cannot hold those responsible to account. 

The rightwingers within the party will indeed come for us again in an attempt to purge the left from any stake or influence — and they will win unless we stay and stand in solidarity.  

Only collectively can we win that fight. It will be the fight of our lives, but Corbyn’s greatest legacy is us — the socialist membership — and in this era of unprecedented political turbulence, together we can be victorious again.

It is still clear that the Labour Party still has to repair the trust that has been broken in many of our communities across the country. 

Living in the East Midlands region, which ranks at the bottom of the table when it comes to central government investment, it is obvious that old wounds still have not been healed. 

Quite simply, we have not been forgiven for Tony Blair, or failing to support the martyrs who stayed out for the miners’ strike which ripped the area apart.

It is now more important than ever that the left use the platforms we have gained over the last five years to heal these wounds. 

Ordinary people have been left without incomes, vital services and support. Whether we work with welfare-rights services, domestic-abuse support or volunteering at your local foodbank, we must never turn our backs on the vulnerable. 

Fighting to change the dire circumstances that somebody finds themself in is the most important thing we can do to win back trust and give a voice to those who feel that they do not have one. 

In short, we must continue as socialist members of the Labour Party to stare down the face of poverty, inequality and injustice at every opportunity.

I thank Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, the activists and organisers and all of those who gave us a vision built on hope. 

As Tony Benn said: “There are two flames burning in the human heart all the time. The flame of anger against injustice, and the flame of hope you can build a better world.”  

It is more crucial than ever that we fan those flames. 

This is a call to arms. My father once told me that 99 per cent of the time we will lose the battle against the capitalist class, but we only need to seize on that 1 per cent in order to completely change the world. 

This is why Corbyn stayed in the Labour Party after Tony Benn’s leadership defeat and through the Kinnock and Blair years, and this is why every socialist now needs to do the same.