The recent sight of European Union flags being handed out and waved at the Last Night of the Proms was a reminder, if any was needed, that many Remain voters have not got over the Referendum result, says former councillor Andy Winter, who worked in social care and homelessness services for 40 years.

They were incredulous that Leave even had any chance of success and are still traumatised by the result.

My advice to them is to get over it and learn lessons. The referendum wasn’t the only shock. The liberal left didn’t think for a moment that Trump could become president in 2016, nor that the charlatan Boris Johnson could become Prime Minister, let alone win a handsome majority and capture the Red Wall working class north. And now complacency is setting in about the 2024 general election.

Labour will more than likely win and its lacklustre, inconsistent, U-turning leader Sir Keir Starmer will become Prime Minister. Yes, it is more than likely but it is definitely no certainty.

Labour activists, especially in areas like Brighton and Hove where the party is riding high following the local election results, are confident that they will win all three seats. I have written before that this will depend on its choice of candidate in Brighton Pavilion.

Choose well, perhaps selecting council leader Bella Sankey, and the odds will definitely be in Labour’s favour. Choose badly, perhaps a non-local candidate, and one advantage over the Greens will be lost allowing Siân Berry a realistic chance of holding Caroline Lucas’s seat.

Labour nationally is doing a great job in dampening expectations and sucking any semblance of enthusiasm from its campaign. I squirm with embarrassment and shout at the television every time a Stepford Frontbencher is asked what Labour will do in government. They are all on message in critiquing the latest government fiasco – they have been given ample opportunities to hone their attacks. But they lose credibility and support every time they reply with their hollowed-out, lifeless eyes and robotic answers about needing to see what the economic circumstances will be once in government.

The Rishi Sunak shine – that he isn’t Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Liz Truss – has worn off. But don’t be fooled that there isn’t someone in the wings waiting to do a Trump.

Trump’s main strategist in the run up to polling day in 2016 was Steve Bannon who has said that one of Trump’s advantages over Hillary Clinton was that he spoke in a voice that did not sound political.

Clinton spoke like the trained politician she was, that her tempo was overly practised and even when telling the truth, he said, she sounded like she was lying to you.

That’s exactly how I feel about many Labour frontbenchers. Perhaps those of us who identify as being on the left of British politics should be grateful that the right isn’t led by someone with the seductive brass of Johnson, the mischievous anti-politician rhetoric of Nigel Farage and the personal appeal of Georgia Meloni.

A problem for the left is that its electoral base is well established, feeding off formulaic touchstones like the NHS, education and LGBT and other minority rights. But that support, as we saw in 2019, is soft, with Red Wall voters flocking to Johnson’s populist appeal about getting Brexit done and getting control of our borders.

Many of these voters will not return to Labour not least because the party has no credible, convincing alternatives on these and other issues that people are concerned about.

Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said “there’s not a single hidden Hillary voter in the entire country. They’re all out and about”. She coined the phrase “the hidden Trump voter”.

Labour didn’t see the collapse of the Red Wall in 2019. Labour has traditionally relied on what proved to be the hidden Johnson voters, ignoring their communities, turning a blind eye to poorly performing NHS trusts and corrupt Labour councils. They took these voters for granted, focusing instead on the politics and sensitivities of the metropolitan elites in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Brighton.

But perhaps the worst aspect of the approach by Labour is that it doesn’t offer the hope that Blair provided in 1997 that “things can only get better”.

We all know that the country is in a mess and that the economy is up a certain creek without a paddle. But by sticking to Conservative tax plans and spending restrictions, it looks as if the Labour elite is comfortable with managing the further decline of public services as long as they are in office.

But without offering hope or convincing answers about what they will do, they might not make it into government.