Two new books, 'Left Out' by Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire, and 'This Land' by Owen Jones, dissect the rapid decline of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, from the optimism of 2017 to the landslide defeat in 2019. The authors detail how an era collapsed around the Labour leader and his circle, who had expected to enter Number 10 after the election.
Pogrund and Maguire's 'Left Out' is a meticulous account of Labour's descent, modelled on Tim Shipman's bestsellers but focused on failure. It highlights the party's internal tensions, factional warfare, and Corbyn's inability to lead on Brexit. The book portrays Corbyn as not a politician for the Brexit age, averse to confrontation and unable to exercise executive power.
The books also explore the ugly underbelly of far-left politics, including a deferential view of Vladimir Putin and the antisemitism crisis. Corbyn's response to the Salisbury poisoning—suggesting the toxic substance be sent to Moscow for testing—was met with fury from his own team. The leadership's tolerance of antisemitism among some members and Corbyn's own past comments, such as his 2013 remarks about 'Zionists', deepened the mire.
Despite Labour's achievements in 2017, the party's failure to address these issues, combined with a politics that mixed righteous beliefs with unseemly attitudes, led to its downfall. The books provide a detailed, if sometimes overwhelming, account of the characters and events that shaped Corbynism's rise and fall.
