IT seems so long ago now, the much vaunted mass recruitment of new members into the Labour Party.

Even after their crushing recent defeat, they still claimed that they were the 'largest party in Europe'.

But, in the self-congratulatory euphoria, they had forgotten the first rule, for a party attempting to attain government: you cannot get elected by reliance on your party membership alone.

And from the interviews with their senior MPs, last Friday, they clearly have still not fully appreciated this as a political fact.

But the greatest influence on the Labour Party’s fortunes, was the number, nature and political allegiance of these new members.

They called themselves Momentum, as if they were some kind of 'pub quiz team'. They are not. They are a party within a party.

Their political ambitions and even social history are far removed from what the Labour Party was arrogant enough to call its 'core electorate' in the assumption it had their unquestioning support.

They are so arrogant they thought that no one would notice!

Well we did. And we were listening. It was the Labour Party that was not listening!

As much as I might dislike Boris Johnson, what choice did we have?

Corbyn and Momentum did not leave us any.

And as much as I might dislike Tony Blair, he was right.

If Labour do not reform, those leaving school next year could spend their whole working lives under successive Conservative governments.

Malcolm Glover,

Lindsey Avenue,

Holgate, York