Britain's Labour Party Is Shattered by the Three Cs
Covid and the after-effects of Corbyn were factors in a poor election showing. The cultural conservatism of U.K. voters is another problem.
A hard sell.
Photographer: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images EuropePeter Mandelson, spirit guide to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, blamed the two “C”s for the Labour Party’s shattering defeat in a parliamentary by-election last week: “Covid and Corbyn.”
The opposition party put up a poor showing in important local contests across the country, but the loss of Hartlepool to Boris Johnson’s Tories cut deep. On the doorsteps of the northern English constituency he used to represent, Mandelson claimed that he heard voters praise the Conservative government for its vaccine rollout. They also singled out Labour’s previous hard-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn — who often appeared to have more affinity with Havana than Hartlepool — as a reason for the party’s lingering unpopularity with working class voters.