Can Britain really keep the rise of the populist right at bay? History tells us it can | David Kynaston

A leading social historian argues how, by rekindling the understated qualities of Attlee, Labour can prioritise the lives of working people

A fortnight after the election, Icannot remember a time in my life when a sense of hope was so inextricably entwined with a sense of trepidation, even doom. We live in 2024; we are grateful for the downfall of a Tory administration so little imbued with imaginative empathy about the daily lives of the people it governed; but our thoughts are already tuned, fearfully and obsessively, to 2029 and beyond. Almost everywhere abroad we see the rise of the populist, authoritarian right. Is it really plausible to think Britain can stay immune?

Perhaps - just perhaps - we can. There is a decent argument that with the Brexit vote in 2016 we have already had our populist, boil-lancing moment - a moment that was ultimately, in my view, a cry of impotent despair (especially from older people) against modernity and the bewildering forces of change. Maybe that was enough; and it is notable how, on the issue itself, a long static period post-2016 of entrenched views on both sides has in the last year or so given way to a significant majority seeing that vote as a mistake.

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