It’s not just Labour that should ponder its 2019 defeat

The underlying story of what happened in 2019 might ease Sajid Javid’s fiscal headache.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 28: Sajid Javid, Chancellor of the Exchequer, leaves Downing Street on January 28, 2020 in London, England. Members of the National Security Council met to decide on whether to ban equipment made by Chinese technology giant Huawei from its 5G networks. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Why did Labour lose the 2019 election? I think it was as easy as ABCD: anti-Semitism, Brexit, Corbyn, and demographic change.

Labour lost votes because of anti-Semitism; specifically, as far as most voters were concerned, because of Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of competence in handling the issue. For many British Jews a minority of other voters, Labour’s was a moral failing but for the majority, the damage that anti-Semitism did to Labour’s electoral prospects was mostly about how it affected the party’s perceived competence.