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Sure, but (despite this being an oversimplification given there isn't a straight line of political preference) to get all of those voters to the left, are you really sure that they won't lose more on the right?
I think there are two things here.
One, your begging the question that they will gain votes from those on the right.
Two, if they do move to the right, the issue (which started this discussion) is returned to. Who are the Labour party positioning themselves for?
The possible pool of voters to the left seems a lot smaller than the possible pool of voters to the right. Are they more likely to gain all of the green votes but lose none to the right? Or gain a smallish proportion of floating Tory voters to the right but hope to lose fewer to the left than they gain?
No denying the truth of this. Swing voters are gold dust for political parties. So the strategy makes perfect sense from that perspective.
But it shouldn't be denied that it's dangerous, or put forward that the policy is de facto correct. There's no evidence that Labour is able to capture those/enough voters on the right (that I'm familiar with), and there is evidence Labour will shed other voters on the left which will cost seats. Add to this the larger, normative, issue of what the policy cost is to capture them, and you can understand people's worries.
Also bearing in mind a democratic legitimacy point, that policy aiming for the middle is probably preferable to policy aiming for either side of the spectrum (and therefore likely to be longer lasting, too)
I'm sorry, but I don't see that at all. I don't think centrist = democratic legitimacy. A party which is able to win votes from the people who support their policies, and then represent them/those policies in parliament, is the essence of democratic legitimacy. An electoral system which makes this more difficult (i.e., FPTP) is a hindrance to this, and therefore, democratic legitimacy. That is, if Labour is forced to move to the centre/right to gain political power (rather than because of ideas/beliefs), then democratic legitimacy is questioned.
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Sure, but (despite this being an oversimplification given there isn't a straight line of political preference) to get all of those voters to the left, are you really sure that they won't lose more on the right?
The possible pool of voters to the left seems a lot smaller than the possible pool of voters to the right. Are they more likely to gain all of the green votes but lose none to the right? Or gain a smallish proportion of floating Tory voters to the right but hope to lose fewer to the left than they gain?
Also bearing in mind a democratic legitimacy point, that policy aiming for the middle is probably preferable to policy aiming for either side of the spectrum (and therefore likely to be longer lasting, too)