UKIP’S advances in Rotherham sum up in a nutshell the choices that now confront Ed Miliband and Labour.

Former shadow health spokesman John Healey is right to say that the council result — which saw the new racist “Tory” party scoop up seven seats from Labour to become the official opposition — is “a message for all the political parties.”

“Wake up. People are angry. They are saying that they aren’t hearing enough of what they feel in what we politicians are saying.”

The Morning Star couldn’t agree more with this hard-working MP who distinguished himself during his time on the front benches by resolutely backing a publicly owned NHS.

The same MP could be heard at last year’s pro-public rail Labour conference fringe advocating democratic ownership of the East Coast Main Line as a competitive “example” shaming the greedy privateers who scoop up profits on the rest of the network.

Such a publicly owned enterprise, he added, could serve as a model for Britain to reclaim control of other sectors such as energy.

MPs such as Healey serve as an example to those who argue that Westminster should be written off in its entirety.

Indeed it is from these defeatist sentiments that the far-right Ukip party has fed.

However, one cannot help but feel a sense of unease about how Labour will respond to the Ukip challenge, not least given the instinct among vacuous Progress faction types to push for policy via the lowest common denominator.

An irresponsible response would be to veer to the right, assuming that Ukip’s advances at Labour’s expense are about immigration.

That would undoubtedly drag Britain further down a road which now sees baying fascists rampaging through communities singling out people for their skin colour and beliefs.

And one could easily draw a different, more accurate conclusion from yesterday’s results.

The turnout in Rotherham bumped tragically along at a third of the electorate.

Undoubtedly some who turned to Ukip did so without realising that behind its dog-whistle policies lies a dyed-in-the-wool conservative party.

It has successfully attracted the most right-wing elements from the Tories and scooped up an additional bloc alienated by the perceived detachment of “mainstream” politics.

But what of the 65.25 per cent of voters who did not even make it into the Rotherham polling booths?

This, a clear evidence of alienation, should signal to any politician whose concern does not start and finish with their personal careers that significant policy change is required.

The people demand something different — and through its slavish reluctance to do anything but fiddle with policy Labour quite simply is not meeting that demand.

A heavy responsibility rests with our union-backed elected representatives between now and next year’s general election. The voices of opportunism, seeking to out-Ukip Ukip, could win that debate.

So too could the voices of opportunity — filling the massive vacuum within a disenchanted electorate which demands that the politicians for whom we vote must have a meaningful agenda and the power, incompatible with EU membership, to enact it.

That requires more than headline-grabbing hints that rail may under Labour become somewhat less owned by other states’ publicly owned companies and somewhat more owned by us.

It means setting out a vision that confronts the growing dismay and alienation at senior politicians’ unwillingness to confront the rampant tax-avoiders, corporations and the super-rich.

It means, in a nutshell, a sharp turn to the left.