Britain | Bagehot

Jeremy Corbyn’s crushing defeat

Don’t expect the Labour Party to move back to the centre quickly

THE CONSERVATIVE party did everything it could to hand an election victory to Labour. It gestated Brexit in its womb and then failed to deliver it. It presided over ten years of austerity that strained public services to breaking point. It promoted fanatics while expelling first-raters. Yet Labour has managed its fourth loss in a row and its second under Jeremy Corbyn, and not just any old loss. As we went to press Labour was set to win only around 200 seats, its worst performance since 1935.

Under Michael Foot in 1983 Labour responded to a similar humiliation by moving to the centre. You might imagine that this would happen in double-quick time today, too—that Mr Corbyn and John McDonnell, his shadow chancellor and comrade in arms, would be marched out of Labour headquarters in sackcloth and ashes; and that Seamus Milne, chief strategist, and his fellow Marxists would be subjected to a suitably Stalinesque show trial. Having won three elections under a moderate leader, Tony Blair, Labour has now lost four as it has charged ever further to the left. Enough said, surely?

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Jeremy Corbyn’s crushing defeat"

Victory

From the December 14th 2019 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Britain

Why so many Britons have taken to stand-up paddleboarding

It combines fitness, wellness and smugness

Why Britain’s membership of the ECHR has become a political issue

And why leaving would be a mistake


The ECtHR’s Swiss climate ruling: overreach or appropriate?

A ruling on behalf of pensioners does not mean the court has gone rogue