The left needs to halt the UK’s slide into Farageism. This is the kind of leader who could do it | Owen Jones

A Labour party that knowingly imposes hardship on disabled people, pensioners and children has filed for moral and political bankruptcy.

Most voters think Britain is returning to austerity or never left it.

Polls show overwhelming support for public ownership of services and utilities.

But the left has failed to harness social media platforms for its own advantage.

That disillusionment must go somewhere, and combined with growing apathy, Nigel Farage may well triumph by default. His success is a damning indictment of the predictable and predicted catastrophe of Starmerism. But a left that runs at full pelt away from an open goal has major questions to answer, too. - Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist.