Why I left the Labour Party, or: How identity politics left me questioning who to vote for at the General Election.

Much has been written about the crisis in the Labour Party and of progressive politics as a whole. I’m adding to it not because I claim to hold any authority on the subject, but from a compulsion to share my personal experience, and, as an ex-Labour member, because of my deep frustrations with the current situation in the party.

I first voted Labour in 1997 when I was eighteen. The year a New Labour landslide general election victory ended eighteen years of Conservative rule, winning 418 seats in the House of Commons — the largest victory in the party’s history. At every general election since I’ve voted Labour, eventually joining the party in 2010.

Although far from the most committed member in my local constituency, I was an active campaigner. I canvassed every other weekend and for several years participated in my local branch and constituency meetings.

Being on the left of the party, I was an enthusiastic supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership challenge and joined his campaign team during the run-up to the 2015 leadership election.

In the months that followed Jeremy Corbyn’s coronation, Labour tripled in size as the party attracted hundreds of thousands of new members, creating a mass movement of inspired activists ready to implement Corbyn’s bold vision for change.

Many traditional Labour supporters and seasoned left-wing activists who had for years felt disenfranchised by the New Labour project either returned to or joined the party. However, the vast majority of incoming members were young, fresh to politics and ready to get involved.

In early 2016, for personal reasons, I stepped away from politics for a short while, returning to party activities six months later. It was at this time and with the clarity of vision that only a period of absence can provide, I started to view the party differently.

For the first time, I became acutely aware of the identitarians within the party, many of whom had been there…