Labour’s official report into December’s electoral defeat has exonerated leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying he faced an assault on his character “without precedent in modern politics”.
Written by election co-ordinators Andrew Gwynne and Ian Lavery and circulated at a meeting of Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), the document said it would be “unrealistic” not to blame the result on Brexit.
The issue of Britain leaving the EU “divided voters”, creating a chasm that could not be bridged with a referendum policy that aimed to unite both sides of the divide.
Radicalism was not the problem
The authors briefly considered the possibility that Mr Corbyn’s leadership and radical manifesto could have played a role in the epic defeat.
But they said this was not the case, arguing neither had been a problem in the 2017 general election, when the party made large electoral gains.
“It is unlikely that radicalism per se was the problem in a country looking for change,” the report said.
Assault without precedent
Far from being a weak or divisive leader, Corbyn was instead the victim of four years of unrelenting attacks on his character, they wrote.
This was an “assault without precedent in modern politics,” they argued.
Instead, the report suggest that the losses were influenced by other long-term factors.
In former coalfield areas, for example, Labour’s share of the vote had been declining for the last six elections — with the exception of 2017.
“There are long-term issues at work here, reflecting economic, social and demographic change,” the report said.
The NEC report did not entirely shy away from criticism of the leadership, suggesting in retrospect that “too many policies” were launched on a daily basis.
Related: Dissatisfaction with democracy ‘reaching all-time global high’
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .
