Jeremy Corbyn aides believed he sabotaged his 2019 election campaign
Jeremy Corbyn’s closest aides thought he was sabotaging himself during the 2019 General Election campaign, according to a new book on Labour’s disastrous defeat.
Corbyn reportedly intentionally missed events by making his schedule run over time during the campaign as the party’s leadership squabbled over campaign tactics.
The revelations come from the soon-to-be-released Left Out – by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund – with sections of the book published today in The Sunday Times.
One of Corbyn’s aides said: “JC was deliberately adding extra things and talking to people to delay and then spoke for 30 mins plus at the campaign stop once they had arrived 40 mins late.”
A WhatsApp group of senior aides also revealed that the former Labour leader forced his chief of staff Karie Murphy to cancel rallies in the Midlands and refused to agree to make a second visit to communities affected by flooding last November.
Aides also feared the influence of his wife Laura Alvarez, with some claiming he was using her as an emotional shield during the campaign.
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The book paints a picture of a party in chaos, with Corbyn’s inner-circle often at war with each other and unable to agree on a campaign strategy.
Corbyn would allegedly often complain about not being involved in planning the campaign and even began to dial into every morning meeting.
“It was like he’d had a breakdown,” one aide said.
“He just wouldn’t drop the stuff about the diary and dialling onto the calls.
“It was his way of trying to regain control.”
The book also reveals that Labour’s top team – including John McDonnell and Ian Lavery – were told in September that they were in line to win just 138 seats at the next election.
Polling figures showed Labour would lose more than a hundred seats in the Midlands and the North, with Labour-voting Brexit supporters switching their allegiance to the Tories.
The polling was greeted by Lavery, then party chairman, with disbelief as he claimed it was incorrect and that the company responsible for the survey was a “Tory firm”.
Labour went on to win 202 seats in the election, which was its worst showing since 1935, as the Conservatives won in a landslide.
Labour lost many constituencies in its so-called “Red Wall” in the North of England to the Conservatives, including Tony Blair’s former constituency Sedgefield.