The Ashcroft report shows Labour needs an overhaul of the way it treats voters

The Conservative peer’s review into why the party performed so poorly in the last election should not be dismissed out of hand, writes Paul Ovenden

Keir Starmer is currently leading the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn (AFP)

Over the last week or so, I’ve been thinking a lot about David. David, a first-time Conservative voter from the traditional Labour heartland of Bolton, is the star of a nicely put together social media video pumped out last week by the Conservative Party.

For the Tories, he represents those who couldn’t bring themselves to vote Labour in December and instead “loaned” their vote to Boris Johnson. For Labour, he represents the party’s malaise that led to this point and the shifting sands we walk on, as we try to find a way forward.

David isn’t the only interesting case study Conservatives have handed Labour recently. Lord Ashcroft’s Diagnosis of Defeat, Labour's Turn to Smell the Coffee – a remake of his 2005 report for his own party – lays bare the challenges facing Labour over 30 harrowing pages. While some will dismiss it because of its author, it is the most interesting, objective and surgical investigation into the interconnected ways in which Labour ended up a humiliated, rump opposition.