Thread by @shaunjlawson

Incidentally, on the question of me being fine with this Labour MP who isn't popular on the left or that Labour MP who isn't popular on the left being part of the Shadow Cabinet... well, here's why I'd be fine with it.

For many reasons - media nonsense most of all, but plenty of other factors too - when the electorate looks at the Labour Party, it sees a party riven with factionalism and sectarianism. What it sees is quite awful.

Among the very many reasons why I've called for a progressive alliance is the desperate need to heal those rifts. To stop being a party full of factions who seemingly hate each other, and remember why we're all progressives.

If a leftist candidate wins the leadership and fills the Shadow Cabinet with fellow leftists, that will achieve nothing.

If a non-leftist candidate wins the leadership and fills the Shadow Cabinet with fellow non-leftists, that will achieve nothing either.

Labour is supposed to be offering the electorate an alternative government. What bloody relevance or use is it to the public if we turn the leadership contest into left v centre v right - and if, for many people, it's about rancour and revenge?

What I expect any leader to do is fill their frontbench team with ALL the talents. From all sections of the parliamentary party. And to seek advice and counsel from all sections outside the parliamentary party too.

The public will not take us seriously unless we're united. That was just as true for John Major's Tories as it was for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour.

And don't get me wrong: many MPs made it impossible for Corbyn. I accept and agree with that. But we all have to move on.

And of those who've played no part on the frontbench team in recent years, Yvette Cooper, Lisa Nandy, Stella Creasy and David Lammy are all musts. All of them have huge amounts to offer: regardless of whether they're not left wing enough for your palate.

For most of the public, it isn't about ideology or dogma. It's about OUTCOMES. Positive outcomes.

Can we improve their lives? Can we improve their communities? Can we be trusted to run the economy sensibly? Do we have an effective communicator as leader?

And if that leader can't control their party for whatever reason (Major, a decent man, didn't deserve his treatment by his backbenchers either), the electorate will say: "If they can't even manage their party, how can they possibly manage the country?"

So the very first thing whoever the new leader is must do is absolutely NOT go down the sectarian route. And by keeping certain people in the Shadow Cabinet, you also limit their ability to torpedo everything from outside it. Better inside pissing out than outside pissing in.

Note: Theresa May could not manage her party, so her position collapsed.

Boris Johnson managed his party by, well, kicking out anyone opposed to him. It didn't deserve to work... but it did work, because his party is now united.

It might not be forever though. It might not even be a year or so from now.

A united Labour Party can exploit that. A disunited rabble will not.

Oh yes, one other thing. Why do I want a progressive alliance? To get PR and change our rotten beyond belief electoral system.

What happens under PR? Parties split and the whole problem with factions disappears. Forever.