Despite shifting the dial on the national conversation about austerity, Corbyn’s Labour failed to end it once and for all.
The result is nothing less than devastating.
The Red Wall crumbled. Seats which have been held by Labour since the end of World War I are now in the hands of Boris Johnson.
This is the worst Labour defeat in 84 years. And now, we must work out why it happened.
Labour’s Leave voters were always in the minority.
But losing them proved fatal, tipping the balance in the Conservative’s favour in key English constituencies across the former industrial heartlands.
The British electoral system is unforgiving of uneven vote distributions, and even though Corbyn managed to claim just over 3% more of the vote than Ed Miliband, he wound up with 29 fewer seats than Labour’s tally after the 2015 election.
So does Corbyn’s bruising losses in ex-industrial strongholds mean that his party have lost touch with the working class? Initial polling suggests there’s not a massive difference in the Labour vote across social grades.
The really striking story from election 2019 is about age.
Out of 2019’s voters, the Tories command a majority of the electorate aged 45 and over.
But under 45s? Corbyn absolutely cleaned up.
A whopping 57% of 18-24 year olds voted for Labour. And don’t tell me that young people - who are overrepresented in low waged work, burdened by personal debt, and trapped in the extortionate private rental sector - don’t count as the “real” working class.
Unlike previous generations, I don’t think that Corbyn’s core support of young voters will necessarily get less radical with age, for the simple reason that they have been failed by the guardians of the status quo.
Even when Brexit was nothing but a glint in Farage’s eye, the young people of this country were fobbed off and sold out by politicians of the sensible centre.
Most Read
The housing market was allowed to spiral out of control, and wealth accumulated in the hands of well-off baby boomers with access to credit.
University was presented by New Labour as the only way pathway to decent pay, and subsequently tuition fees trebled under the coalition government. Our consumption patterns have allowed the climate crisis to deepen, and investment in green industries has faltered.
You can’t vote Conservative if you don’t have a stake in society to conserve.
After the soul-searching following Labour’s defeat will come an overhaul in strategy. Trust in the party of workers will need to be painstakingly rebuilt across much of the country.
But while much will change in the next few months, one thing will stay true. The young have been robbed of a future. There is no going back to “normal politics”.