Left Out
The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn
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Left Out
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Spencer
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Left Out is the first full account of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat.
The 2017 parliament began with Labour on the precipice of power and its left-most fringe - for so long alienated within its own party - closer to government than it had ever been. It ended with them even farther away than they started.
From the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer, Left Out draws on unrivalled access throughout the party and to both leaders' inner circles to provide a blistering narrative exposé of the Labour Party during one of the most tumultuous and significant episodes in its history.
It reveals a party riven by factionalism and at war over ideology, then incapacitated by crisis and indecision. From the plotting of the break-away Independent Group to the inaction and despair over accusations of anti-Semitism, from complaints of sexual harassment and bullying to foiled coups and furious disagreements over Brexit, the listener is in the room as tempers fray and tensions boil over, as sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking-point.
At the heart of the book is Corbyn himself, a man whose like had never been seen at the top of British politics - and is unlikely to ever be seen again. Heroised for his principles by some, derided as an idealist by others, the loyalty and hatred he inspired changed not only the party but the nation.
Intimately drawn and brilliantly told, Left Out is the revelatory inside account of how Labour became the party it is today and of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation.
©2020 Gabriel Pogrund, Patrick Maguire (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A stunningly good book with jaw-dropping revelations on every page, Left Out is the ultimate inside story of how Jeremy Corbyn went from the brink of victory to one of the worst defeats in British political history. It is both a breath-taking work of political journalism and a gripping first draft of history that is unlikely ever to be bettered. Unquestionably the political book of the year." (Tim Shipman, author of All Out War)
What listeners say about Left Out
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emily Pugh
- 10-01-22
Fascinating!
A really good and very even handed look into Labour and Corbyn, really enjoyed it
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- David
- 17-05-21
Worth reading.
Worth reading and enlightening in some ways. Some sections of tedious, bureaucratic, details of vacuous self important people on both sides who ultimately undermined their own project and party, but that was what happened. JC almost a bit player in his own story, whose lack of contrition, visible empathy, decisiveness and direction caused his aims and project to flounder and wasted everyone's time, effort and support. Very believable.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- JohnB
- 19-12-20
How to become unelectable
Fascinating insight into into how, through mismanagement and a lack of leadership at the top, the Labour Party went from the brink of power in 2017 and descended into factionalism, clique politics and chaos. Keir Starmer has a tough job ahead.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- davidtreacy
- 16-11-20
Failed Project
The authors deserve praise for a fair and balanced analysis of the failed Corbyn project and the characters that shaped it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-09-20
An excellent exposé of Corbyn incompetence
Loved it. Highlighted exactly why Labour's wasted 4 years under Corbyn led to a landslide tory victory in 2019.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sean Jones
- 16-11-20
An uncomfortable listen
This is a fascinating account of Labour's internal battles, even if the fascination is morbid. Its challenge is that it is difficult to imagine anyone who would be interested enough in the minutiae of LOTO's office politics who is not already a firm supporter of one or another participating faction. The authors deal with that challenge by giving a great deal of air to each side's criticism of the other. It's an understandable approach but it leaves each listener to mine the "truth" guided by their own confirmation bias.
Matthew Spencer has a fabulous delivery - exceptionally clear and lively without being dramatic. The reading is a little spoiled by a failure to re-record where something has been misread. There are a surprising number of mistakes. In listening to the last half hour or so of the book, for instance, "predicated" is read as "predicted"; "strategist" is mispronounced as "strateegist"; "undeserving" is mispronounced as "under-serving"; and "instigated" is mispronounced as "insticated". "[JC] declared his reign over a week earlier" is read as if he had "declared his reign" and done so more than a week earlier, so that "over" qualifies week rather than describing the end of the reign. Given the immense task Spencer was set, however, I am conscious how churlish this criticism will sound.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sam Allen
- 04-04-21
The definitive account
Impressively neutral and fair account. Works well in combination with Tim Shipman's All out war and Fall out. Should be a must read for Labour activists. There's a lot to learn about what went well, and what didn't go well, and also the significant difficulty of managing one of the two big tent parties in British politics.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Philip J. Coggan
- 03-01-21
Very well researched and detailed story
An exhaustive account of the last two years of Corbyn’s leadership with much detail on the in-house squabbles that helped to undermine the project. Perhaps there is too much about the officials and not enough, Brexit and antisemitism aside, on policy. One star deducted for the narrator and his mispronunciations, particularly of foreign words: rapprochement is not reproachment!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rob
- 20-07-23
Good writing, but the reader has vocabulary issues
Fascinating and fair (possibly too fair) analysis of the Corbyn years, marred by a reader who struggles with the pronunciation of more complex vocabulary.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 22-11-20
Good and fair account of the Corbyn project
Enjoyable and interesting account of the Corbyn project. lots of interesting facts which were dismissed as Corbynite conspiracy theories.
whatever you think of him (and i'm a Tory ) he was set upon from the beginning and had no fair chance against the establishment of his own party yet alone a hostile media.
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2 people found this helpful