Must Labour Always Lose?
Since 1970, Labour has won power in just 4 of the 14 general elections. This angry, passionate book asks why Labour is so good at losing elections and so unhappy and edgy when it does win.
Denis MacShane joined the Labour Party in 1970, and has held every office at local party level. He stood for the Commons aged 26. He served as an MP for 18 years and was Minister of State for Europe. He draws on experience, meetings with Labour leaders from Jim Callaghan to Jeremy Corbyn, and his personal diaries kept when in the Commons as he tries to answer the question: Why is Labour so keen on fighting internal battles and so useless at winning power?
Based on the hard lessons he’s learned, MacShane offers pragmatic suggestions for turning Labour into a party of power as well as protest.
–
The book is like MacShane himself: lively, witty, entertaining, indiscreet, and every so often you can hear the satisfying clunk of an old score being settled.
Francis Beckett, Camden New Journal
His book is personal, political and full of insights. Much of the European left is down and out and Labour must avoid that fate. I hope Labour Party members debate without rancour or sectarian anger what needs to be done. This book is a good starting point.
Polly Toynbee
His account of why Labour is so good at losing elections is fascinating reading. What to do to get Labour back into power is a central question if we don’t want to live in a one party state.
Steve Richards, journalist and presenter
Denis MacShane
Denis MacShane is one of Britain’s leading experts of European politics. Born in Glasgow, he grew up in London and lived and worked in exile in Europe for 15 years when Margaret Thatcher become prime minister. He is a life-long Labour Party member and activist who was an MP for 18 years, Minister of State at the Foreign Office and UK Delegate to the Council of Europe.
He has written biographies of François Mitterrand and Edward Heath, books on the Polish union, Solidarity and black trade unions fighting apartheid, as well studies of modern anti-semitism and West Balkan conflicts. His 2015 book Brexit: How Britain Will Leave Europe predicted the outcome of the 2016 referendum. His last book Bexiternity: The Uncertain Fate of Britain predicting endless problems arising from the way Brexit has been handled was published in 2020.
He has four children and one grandson. He has had lunch, dinner, and many drinks with Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. He has not met Sir Keir Starmer.