Analysis. Some of them played good at scaring themselves, others briefly dreamed of the big night. But in reality, most Britons did not believe in a Jeremy Corbyn victory on December 12. His supporters hoped at best for a Parliament without a majority and a Conservative Party incapable of imposing its program and " implement Brexit ” January 31, 2020, as promised by Boris Johnson during the legislative election campaign.
However, the historic failure of Labor shocked (or delighted, it depends), especially when, on the night of December 12 to 13, the results began to fall and the famous "red wall", this large ribbon of historically "Labor" constituencies of the Midlands and North of England, collapsed like a house of cards. Don Valley, Leigh, Bishop Auckland, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Great Grimsby … Some ridings (Rother Valley, for example), had not elected a Conservative MP for more than a century! These territories were considered as acquired to the British left, because vaccinated by Thatcherism, the closure of mines and factories which dramatically impoverished them from the 1980s.
The worst score since 1935 – only 203 seats in the House of Commons (out of 650): how did the party get there, despite its 500,000 active members and tens of thousands of activists on the ground during the campaign ? Why has he failed to take advantage of the weaknesses of the conservative camp: nine years of austerity policies, a Brexit launched by a Tory Prime Minister (David Cameron), still deadlocked three and a half years later?
A “leadership bankruptcy”
First reason for the failure, even if the person concerned does not: Jeremy Corbyn himself. On the ground, in the Midlands, in Wales, the rejection of voters was massive, and sometimes brutal. "He is racist", "He is anti-Semitic", have we heard a lot on the doorstep. "People don't like Jeremy", noted the militants and even certain Labor candidates. The media blame, " the conservative press ", they often added: Times, the Telegraph, but also the BBC, accused of having caricatured the program and the personality of the leader. Mr. Corbyn has taken up the argument in recent days, denouncing the "Incessant attacks" against it press organs held by "Billionaire".