{"id":3099,"date":"2020-01-13T15:34:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T15:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=3099"},"modified":"2020-01-13T15:34:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T15:34:59","slug":"why-did-labour-lose-the-general-election-understanding-the-deeper-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=3099","title":{"rendered":"Why did Labour lose the general election? Understanding the deeper trends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The clock struck ten and the red wall crumbled, and in came the blue tide. Labour are staring into the abyss, if not already plummeting in it. This was a demise authored by years of terrible politics, and there is no easy fix \u2013 but we can start by uncovering the deeper trends that explain why Labour lost the general election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was no\nsurprise to anyone but those in a red rose that if you spend four years\nignoring the rest of the country and arguing only amongst yourselves, you won\u2019t\nsee the enemy stealing seats traditionally always yours. Labour were asleep,\nlurching through a crisis of institutional failure over anti-Semitism and\nunnecessary internal battles that reflected the puritan and totalitarian streak\nof the hard left. By the time the election rolled around, the party was an\nintellectually \u2013 and morally \u2013 emptied cause, unable to remind the voters of\nits worth beyond harking back to the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could\nBlue Labour\u2019s analysis be useful?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Some groups\nsuch as Blue Labour warned about this but were painfully ignored for years. In\nhis article for Political Quarterly<\/a>, Jonathan Rutherford emphasised\ncertain things such as family life and the importance of the common good.\nReasserting something similar to this message would\nbe a good start for Labour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsense of atomisation that pervades much of our society to some extent explains\nthe nostalgia that somewhat drove Brexit<\/a>. It is nostalgia for a time of\nindustry, of job security and a sense of belonging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\ncourse, there are some problems with Blue Labour. Within his article,\nRutherford spoke about the Catholic social thought being entwined with\ncommunity organising as the founding principles for Blue Labour. Never mind\nthat this is a country with a fading Christian culture, it\u2019s a Protestant one\ntoo. If Labour is to adopt a Blue Labour communitarian-inspired understanding of\nthe importance of family and community, it must modernise it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why\ndid Labour lose the general election?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

However,\nLabour must first do some deep soul-searching about why it lost the 2019\ngeneral election so heavily. Clearly, Labour failed to impress the country with its\nmessage on Brexit. The ambiguity that served so well in 2017 did not hold here.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the\ndismal performance of Jeremy Corbyn should not be ignored either. The skewering\nby Andrew Neil was the final punch in a bruising knockout. The energy that he\narrived with in 2015 had long since disappeared, replaced by a gnarly cynicism\nand visible impatience when scrutinised closely. Jeremy Corbyn was thrust into\nleadership without a morsel of understanding in how to knit together different\nfactions within the party. Put in a place where principles were no longer\nenough to sustain a person, he was unable to compromise where it mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour\nshould be free of this going forward. Corbyn was a failure, and so was his\nproject. There is something deeply flawed about a movement that prides itself\non solidarity and collectivism but is built so ardently upon the resolve and\nintegrity of one man. What will happen now to the group Momentum, particularly\nif the continuity candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey doesn\u2019t win? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless,\nthe temptation to lay this all at the door of Corbyn would be misguided. The\nloss of blue-collar support has been a steady pattern since the New Labour era,\ngenerating momentum in 2015 when UKIP ate into enough votes to take four\nmillion voters but also help Labour lose seats to the Tories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the most\nrecent European parliament elections, the Brexit Party made staggering inroads,\neating away into northern Labour post-industrial and small-town heartlands. Brexit\nimpacted deeply on Labour and the party suffered on both sides<\/a>. But in Leave areas there was a 10.4\nper cent decline in votes. In places such as Redcar<\/a>, Labour haemorrhaged votes to both\nthe Tories and the Brexit Party, allowing the Conservatives to sneak home wins.\nThis was more pronounced in the historic Labour\nseat of Blyth Valley<\/a>,\nwhere the Tories won by a majority of just under 1000, inflicted by a small\nincrease in voting share for them, but a big 8.3 per cent increase for the\nBrexit Party which ate into Labour\u2019s share of the votes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renewing\nsolidarity <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Something\nhas to also fundamentally change within Labour. Its politics, and its version\nof socialism, has to change. Labour did not focus on revitalising a sense of\nsolidarity and shared destiny, but these are the things that hold communities\ntogether. Instead, they presented an endless list of material pledges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towns that\nonce existed as the proud heartbeats of the nation\u2019s industries have been\nabandoned. This is a cultural problem, not just economic. If Labour is to\nreclaim some of its lost historic heartlands, it has to understand the politics\nof community, belonging and reciprocity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Labour has\ntalked about these themes for a long time. But even now, as Lisa Nandy talks\nabout reconnecting with forgotten communities, and Rebecca Long-Bailey talked\nabout progressive patriotism, many Labour members react with too much\nsuspicion. What to do with English identity has plagued the party for a long\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling by the LSE<\/a> found that of those who strongly\nidentified with being English, 70 per cent voted to leave the EU. The score is\nonly a little lower for those who identified strongly with the sense of being\nBritish. Meanwhile it found weak attachments to both Englishness and being\nBritish amongst those who voted Remain. Labour lost 47 seats in England with\ntheir vote share declining by <\/a>eight per cent while every other party enjoyed\nbounces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an\ninstinctive reluctance within the party to acknowledge the power of St George\u2019s\nflag. Now, Labour has now surrendered the flag to the far-right who claim themselves\nto be the defenders of Englishness \u2013 an Englishness defined by ethnicity. This\nhas suppressed the right of ethnic minorities to define themselves as English, even as most of the country believe\nyou don\u2019t have to be white to be English<\/a>, and has damaged Labour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nan age characterised by the uncertainties of globalisation and threats to\nsecurity, voters search for governments who can ensure the safety of their\nloved ones and instil pride in their towns. Yet Labour had a leadership that\nwas uncomfortable with recognising the need for strong police and security\nforces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nconclude, it is important that Labour does not return to the politics of simply\nmanaging capitalism. It must go so far as to remove the commodification out of\nthe institutions and places people value. Some of this was recognised by Labour\nafter 2015, but the party projected itself to too many people, rather than\nspeaking to them and listening to them. A communitarian, politics of solidarity\nhas to be where the party returns to.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The clock struck ten and the red wall crumbled, and in came the blue tide. Labour are staring into the abyss, if not already plummeting in it. This was a demise authored by years of terrible politics, and there is no easy fix \u2013 but we can start by uncovering the deeper trends that explain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":3101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1395,1399,1396],"tags":[2105,1534],"coauthors":[2332],"class_list":["post-3099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-comment","category-elections","category-uk","tag-blue-labour","tag-labour"],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Why-did-Labour-lose-the-general-election-Understanding-the-deeper-trends-49017933408_b1cf2f895f_k.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3099"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=3099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}