Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suffered a crushing defeat in the 2019 general election, as his party secured just 203 seats across the UK. It was Labour’s worst result since 1935 and ultimately led to the departure of Mr Corbyn from the party’s leadership. Keir Starmer eventually won the Labour leadership campaign by a comfortable margin. There were a whole host of reasons for the defeat, including Mr Corbyn’s lack of popularity and Labour’s Brexit policy.
Deborash Mattinson, author of ‘Beyond the Red Wall’ – visited seats in the North of England to ask people why they turned their backs on the Labour Party.
She told the Chopper Politics podcast that Labour need to learn the lessons of December’s defeat if they are to bounce back.
She said: “I think first of all Labour needs to understand why they lost – they lost because what a lot of people commented on is the deterioration of their local community, their high street, the lack of jobs.
“It often felt a bit hopeless, and that happened on Labour’s watch in their view.
“Their feeling was that Labour has taken those seats for granted, and ignored them often while parachuting in politicians who were favoured sons, who were appointed to be MPs, and then looked to Westminster and never looked back.”
Ms Mattinson also highlighted a growing sense that Labour doesn’t represent the communities it once did.
She said there was a feeling under Mr Corbyn that the party was for “snooty graduates” who looked down on Brexit voters.
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She also spoke of how patriotism is an important aspect of Red Wall politics – but that Mr Corbyn wasn’t necessarily solely to blame for the loss of votes in these seats.
Ms Mattinson added: “The other thing that has been incredibly important is how patriotic a lot of people in the Red Wall are.
“They are very in love with their country. If you don’t love your country, the Red Wall will never love you, and that was a big lesson for Labour.
“This wasn’t Corbyn’s fault, i have to say this was coming for a long time – but he turbocharged all those problems – it definitely didn’t help that he was the leader.”
