Last Thursday saw Labour lose its majority on Durham County Council for the first time in over a century. Former mining communities such as Crook, Lanchester, and Delves Lane elected Conservative councillors – many for the first time ever.

Despite County Durham having always been seen as the heart of the northern coalfields and the home of the Durham Miners Gala, many voters have simply lost faith in a Labour Party that has neglected and alienated its core voter base. Since Labour leaderships were happy to calculate political positions from the whims of focus groups rather than the needs of the people they were founded to represent, many feel forgotten, and they demonstrated that last week.

This deep apathy is justified. Counties like Durham have too often seen a serious lack of investment from Labour in power, compared to investment in larger cities. As a result, the sentiment of ‘What has Labour ever done here?’ resonates throughout the old pit villages. Coupled with a distinct lack of vision from the Labour leadership, a deep complacency from the party has left many working-class communities feeling that Labour no longer represents them.

Communities like mine have been left behind by a neoliberal agenda that has denied us jobs and skills for generations now. The combination of Tory government cuts and decades of Labour neglect—from the conceited assertion that these communities, as Peter Mandelson apparently once said, ‘have nowhere else to go’—has led to a collapse in support in areas whose heritage and history are intrinsically linked to the working-class movement.

If Labour is serious about representing working people, it must rebuild support from the ground up and re-root itself. Through CLPs, branches, and community activism, Labour can regain the trust and faith of communities like mine. Labour must be at the forefront of community activism and endeavours in the areas they seek to represent.

In Labour-controlled areas, investment and funding must be decentralised. If we are to rebuild the trust of voters, Labour must be seen to be making a difference in their communities, not just miles down the road in the bigger towns and cities.

In our campaigning in Burnopfield and Dipton, we bucked the local and national trend, seeing a 25 percent increase in turnout from the last time the seat was contested.

Our message and priorities were rooted in the community’s actual concerns. We listened carefully to residents’ worries and sought to find tangible solutions to some of our area’s key problems. We had a clear community-orientated message of hope and optimism.

We spoke about rebuilding our community after the pandemic, about helping it to flourish again. Some of our key priorities were around community wealth building, breathing new life into parks and recreation areas, providing more activities for young people. Our campaign was localised, rooted in our community, and spoke about the difference Labour could make here.

As faith in the Labour Party crumbles nationally, I believe this sort of politics—a politics of community empowerment and social value—is the future of Labour: look at our few success stories in post-industrial heartland areas like Preston, Salford, and Wales, where faith in our movement was guaranteed by our local party’s rejection of the same-old.

Our people do not want a return to vapid, hollow, and focus-grouped politics. As the Tories begin to make promises about investment and infrastructure, those Labour higher-ups have to wise up to the fact that people are restless and want change.

But whether or not Westminster ignores us, we in the labour movement must persist in building a better way for our communities—and a better way for the Labour Party—wherever we are. In that mission, we can’t give up, or there will be no future for us all.