Labour did lose the working class. Their support came from the young and the better educated. That doesn't mean their policies under Corbyn wouldn't have benefited the working class but for whatever reason more voted Tory than Labour in 2019. Reform are now capturing much of that vote.
I have a theory as to why but you wouldn't like it. I'm now a left leaning middle class pensioner but from a working class background.
Yeah, I'm sure that had absolutely nothing to do with the endless media smear campaigns, internal sabotage and utter refusal to take the working class people who did support him seriously. My point is that the media are dictating the narrative in an extremely cynical way.
The media always have but whether you like it or not racism is a factor and the Tories and now Reform offer simple (but wrong) solutions and blame immigrants for much of the poor's problems. We no longer have a true unionised working class to combat that so the right wing support has increased.
The media have always been duplicitous bastards but I feel like what we saw in 2019 with the insane scrutiny put on Corbyn vs the free ride Johnson got was unprecedented. And labour only seem to be emboldening& amplifying those wrong solutions offered by Reform/Tories.
I guess you are much younger and don't remember the same or worse happening to likes of Kinnock. Milliband was even lampooned over his kitchen and a bacon sandwich. It really hasn't changed other than the papers being far less influential.
Also, that shift towards reform might have something to do with Starmer being a steaming pile of shit and making poor peoples lives materially worse while simultaneously parroting the exact same immigrant scapegoating rhetoric as reform instead of fighting it.
And whilst Reform are undoubtedly getting support from all quarters Labour are losing it to the Greens, Lib Dem's and potentially Corbyn. Labour are foolishly trying to appeal to the right wing working class.
I'm referring to data from 2019! I'm no Starmer fan but we aren't talking about the last year. Left wing support is now the young and more educated not the working class to the extent that one still exists post Thatcher.
We no longer have prominent working class voices to combat the simple solutions and immigrant bashing from Reform and the Tories. Labour are all at sea and the left of centre vote is being carved up. I don't claim to have an answer and fear we are heading for a Reform govt.
This is definitely a big part of the problem. A combination of austerity and ever worsening working class representation in the media has dissolved any space for leftist working class voices to be heard. That's kind of my entire point really.