Steven Fielding

Corbyn’s leadership has been a success and a failure for Labour

When he was elected Labour leader on 12 September 2015 opinion was uniquely divided as to what impact Jeremy Corbyn would have on his party. Critics looked to his far-left politics and predicted disaster, believing Corbyn would repel millions of former Labour voters who had just re-elected a Conservative government committed to austerity; supporters believed his principled socialism would in contrast save the party by mobilising those alienated by Labour’s reluctant embrace of austerity.

As he prepares to step down a settled consensus has yet to emerge about the Corbyn years. It is likely one never will. For both sides of the argument can point to evidence that suggests Corbyn’s leadership both repelled and attracted, that he was at once a failure and success.

This is because even the bare facts of Corbyn’s leadership are contradictory. Corbyn led Labour into two general elections, the first of which in 2017 saw his party’s vote share rise from 30.4 per cent in 2015 to 40 per cent. This result was seen by supporters as vindicating his radical leadership. Critics however claimed it was more a reflection of Theresa May’s incompetent campaign. The second election in 2019 saw Labour’s share fall back to 32.1 per cent, which critics believed justified their perspective. Supporters however argued 2019 was a ‘Brexit election’, a one-off, and so no reflection on Corbyn’s leadership.

Whichever way you interpret them neither contest ended with Labour forming a government: if in 2017 Corbyn claimed he denied the Conservatives a Commons majority, in 2019 Boris Johnson won a thumping majority of 80 seats. So if measured strictly in terms of electoral performance Corbyn left the party very much where it had been in 2015: slightly better off in terms of vote share but down 30 MPs.

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Written by
Steven Fielding
Steven Fielding is Emeritus Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham. He is currently writing a history of the Labour party since 1976 for Polity Press.

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