Five Million Conversations: How Labour lost and election and rediscovered its roots

by Iain Watson

On the eve of the general election, Ed Miliband declared that Labour had won the 'ground war'. He proclaimed that his activists had been in touch with many more voters than his 'We have had five million conversations. This will go to the wire.' Yet the Conservatives went on to win a majority for the first time in more than two decades - while Labour lost seats in England, and were all but wiped out in Scotland. How could they get it so wrong? Iain Watson followed the Labour campaign around Britain, and now he examines what its senior politicians are now calling the party's 'political and organisational failures.' He exposes the high-level divisions over when to rule out a deal with the SNP, the gulf between perception and reality over Labour's level of support, and looks at the more successful campaigns of the Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists. He sets out the challenges for the next Labour leader, having had his own conversations with voters, activists and senior party figures, and discovers there is no easy solution to the party's problems.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 20, 2015

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

How to mark a minor governmental bureaucrat as a god-sent for almost 100 million people? Watson just did it.

[The Master · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a debacle.

[Carole Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating - and troubling - insight into Labour's election campaign and subsequent leadership contest. How could such clever people get it all so wrong? A riveting read.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An object (and abject) lesson in how to lose a General Election (2015) by the second worst Labour leader of our time.