From austerity to Brexit: the failed populist moment in the UK

Abstract

After the 2007-8 financial crisis, movements - and later parties - which brought 'the people' to the forefront began to dominate the European political scene. These mobilisations brought electoral success for left parties, translating the energies of the movements to the electoral level. Although many people saw Corbynism as a similar political phenomenon, in the UK it was the Brexit campaign that was most successful in constructing a mass popular subjectivity. This article discusses the failure of the anti-austerity mobilisations in Britain to create a transversal popular subjectivity, as happened in Spain and Greece; and it looks at Corbynism within the context of the popular left moment after 2007-8. In particular, it argues that, although the party under Corbyn's leadership did try to absorb the anti-austerity energy, and ultimately to present it in a manifesto that could bring electoral victory, it did not succeed in this attempt. This was partly because the British anti-austerity movements had not had the same social extent as the movements of the squares in Greece and Spain; partly because the Labour Party has very rarely seen itself, or behaved as, a populist party; and partly because Corbynism did not manage to deal with the challenge of Brexit. But there are also factors outside of the control of the leadership of the party, including the interplay between Corbynism and the Conservatives; the relationship between Corbynism and Momentum; and the nature of the discourses in circulation during this period.