Labour’s mess is the predictable result of a leader and philosophy hated by voters

I lost my seat in December. As the party elects a new leader, it must bury Corbynism – not just Corbyn, says the former MP for Sedgefield

By Phil Wilson

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 12: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn poses outside the polling station at Pakeman Primary School, Holloway on December 12, 2019 in London, England. The current Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the first UK winter election for nearly a century in an attempt to gain a working majority to break the parliamentary deadlock over Brexit. The election results from across the country will be counted overnight and an overall result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Who would have believed it possible that one day, four of the seven parliamentary constituencies in the County of Durham would have Conservative MPs? A political lifetime ago the thought was a Conservative pipe dream. The thought never even passed through Labour minds. There was no need for such a mindset amongst Labour Party strategists. Why should there be? Ever since 1919, when Labour took control of the county council for the first time and every time since then, Durham had always been a Labour heartland.

But the day did come. On Thursday 12 December 2019, the Tory dream came true. The 2019 general election wasn’t like any other in the past 80 years. It was also like no other because it was an election fought on two days, in two different years. The 2019 general election truly was a game of two halves, because 2017 was unfinished business.