The Labour Party’s Long Road Back
As the party chooses Jeremy Corbyn’s successor, it would do well to understand exactly why he failed.
Labour must choose wisely.
Photographer: Stefan Rousseau - PA Images/PA ImagesTwo months after suffering its worst general election result for 84 years, Britain’s Labour Party continues to pick up the pieces. While Boris Johnson’s Conservatives govern with an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, Labour is simultaneously reflecting on its thrashing and electing a successor to outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn.
This week saw the publication by Lord Ashcroft -- a Conservative peer but whose research is generally accepted as non-partisan -- of a report into Labour’s defeat. The report highlighted a number of issues that doomed Labour, including Corbyn's leadership, the flip-flopping over Brexit, a domestic platform that wasn’t seen as credible and obsession with fringe liberal issues. But the common theme throughout was the party’s failure to listen.