, 18 tweets, 6 min read
My Authors
Read all threads
THREAD: Why Labour lost (from "After Corbynism"). 1/ Fact: Labour lost twice as many voters to Remain parties as to the Tories. It lost them quickly (April-June). It lost them because Corbyn and NEC dithered over Second Referendum/Remain...

paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
2/ So it wasn't the "Remainer left" who tanked Labour's poll average from 32 to 22 in six weeks. But it was the internationalist left who - for four months - had to fight to get to the position that allowed the squeeze on Libdem votes...
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
3/ Did anyone warn that trying to appease small-town elderly voters on Brexit was a no-win, and urge Corbyn to talk about crime, defence, national security? See picture:

paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
4/ The September conference compromise - of Second Referendum but "wait and see" over Remain was accepted by the left. It allowed us to squeeze the Libdems by 10 points in a month. It's authors were the people trying to repudiate the pro-PV line now...
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
5/ So we lost, according to Datapraxis, up to 28 seats because of the 1.1 million Labour -> Libdem swing, which was bigger than the switch from Lab -> Tory. That's over half the seats we lost. But... what caused so many Lab voters in Leave areas to switch?
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
6/ It's not a question of "was it Brexit or was it Corbyn"? The #1 issue by a mile identified by Datapraxis is negativity over Corbyn Leave seats - primarily over national security. Did Corbyn/LOTO do a single thing to counter this negativity during 2019?
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
7/ Of course 2/3 of the negativity is media propaganda, including disgraceful breaches of impartiality by BBC. But the IHRA fiasco, the dire response to Skripal were both avoidable. But here's how the Corbyn/Brexit factors interact... (next tweet)
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
8/ Here's the polling research that TSSA/HNH showed Corbyn in January. We expected 36% of working class Leave voters to be turned off by Brexit. In the 800k switched - but they were boosted by 300k Labour Remain voters who did not trust Corbyn...
9/ While the TSSA/HNH polling on Brexit showed 1/3 small-town older workers who voted Leave might switch, it never factored in the Corbyn effect. Here's the Datapraxis summary:
10/ As long as the Tories had a crap leader, divided and were committed to soft Brexit they could not achieve, the PV+"wait and see" position worked. With Johnson in power we should have changed leader, or drafted in a collegiate team. But by now LOTO a Lexiteer bunker...
11/ So the election half lost the moment the NEC nixed PV in April, and it got worse the moment the Lexiteers adopted a position they didn't agree with (PV+"wait and see") and reputation ally destroyed the Conference over Watson (again an NEC move)... However.
12/ A strong campaign focused in the North/Midlands could have limited the damage. Murphy, Lavery and above all Beckett kept saying the polls were "propaganda" and we should target offensive seats..
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
13/ Then, in a panic they switched to defending the North. Did they talk about crime, police, national security? Did they outline the Labour Brexit deal in detail? Did they vector tons of activists to defend these seats? Not until too late....
paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
14/ Learning the lessons requires surveying the evidence. Had I known the anti-Corbyn stuff would be a force multiplier, sending 300k Labour Remainers to the Tories, the conclusion in May would have been: switch leaders. This has implications going forward...
15/ So the Lexiteers and LOTO insiders blaming Starmer/Thornberry/Lewis etc are wrong. It was their defeat: they ignored polls, they imposed the pro-PV line without any clear Remain/Leave adjunct, they ignored professional advice, they refused to take national security seriously.
16/ Incidentally Lisa Nandy had a much clearer line: only if Labour delivered Brexit in the commons and "took credit for it" would we have stemmed the losses in Leave areas. She was right - but we could never do that and win an election...
17/ Here's why this matters for 2024. Unless we realise that stuff like the Skripal fiasco is a vote-killer in working class communities, and that crime, foreign policy etc actually resonate there, we'll never have a conversation with these communities.
18/18 - for where we go next read the pamphlet. We need a left leader who can learn the lessons and build a broader coalition, within and outside the party. ENDS

paulmason.org/wp-content/upl…
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Enjoying this thread?

Keep Current with Paul Mason

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!