It’s a calamity foretold. Many disappointed, upset and angry traditional Labour supporters will not vote for the party in this May’s council election. I am one of the refuseniks.

A fellow hack asks, “Do you want Reform UK to win?”. Obviously not. But Starmer’s government now wears Reform’s divisive language and policies. So a vote for them is not an option.

In 2015, at the Labour Party conference, I was arguing with an insider, now a Lord. I told him ethnic minorities had been used and overlooked by the party for too long. He replied: “Ah, who would you lot vote for instead?” Black and Asian voters flocked to the Tories, some to Reform more recently. And Labour voters of colour helped the Greens win in Gorton and Denton. The disdainful Lord learns we can take our vote elsewhere.

I have voted for Labour in every election, except in 2005, when former prime minister Tony Blair stood again after his bloody Iraq war. By then, he was pushing punitive policies to deter asylum seekers (including from Iraq) and wanted to pack them off to centres in Turkey and Kenya. All the good he had done was squandered.

In our times, Starmer has just been one disappointment after another. Labour under him cannot be........

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