Crushing to an election defeat worse than that of 2010, almost entirely wiped out in Scotland, and failing to persuade even senior party figures of its capability of winning power in 2020, it is fair to write that the Labour Party today stands at a crossroads.

In 2012, in an article entitled “Honey, I shrunk the Tories” The New Statesman magazine claimed that the Conservative party which last recorded a parliamentary majority in 1992 might never do so again.

Despite electoral retreat in the north of England, Wales and Scotland in recent decades, however, David Cameron unexpectedly put this New Statesman notion to bed over this past week by forming a single-party Conservative government.

Instead, now, having conceded so much ground right across the UK it appears it ought to be the Labour Party questioning where its next House of Commons majority might come from.

Following Labour’s dismal performance, ex-party MP David Miliband rightly said that there is no point in the party trying to blame the electorate for their loss or wondering why voters didn’t “get” their message.

The election result proves that a Labour party which merely points out problems as opposed to offering credible, practical solutions cannot expect to win a general election any time soon.

Labour bemoaned the Tories’ negative campaigning, but depicting many employers as “predators” is not good for, well, political business either if you are serious about seeking votes from all sections of society.

Like David Miliband stated, the party must embrace people rather than divide them. It has to rediscover itself and appeal to those beyond its core voting constituencies whom Ed could not reach.

In many ways the problems faced by the UK Labour Party are similar to those faced by Northern Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a party whose share of the vote has continued to decrease steadily in recent elections.

Just as the problems faced in relation to both parties’ respective leaderships, strategy and policies are similar, so too are the lessons learned and potential remedies for recovery.

Over the next five years, aspiration, inclusive politics as well as social justice can become bywords for both Labour causes.

With the aim of any political party being to win the hearts and minds of people and, ultimately, power, the challenge for both Labour and the SDLP is to reinvent; to be bold and relevant, to reach out to new constituencies.

If not, then both parties, currently retreating to their respective core constituencies, will only continue to shrink.