Losing elections is not a particularly fun activity. I remember pounding the pavement in pouring rain in the newly created Scottish Parliament constituency of Glasgow Southside on May 5, 2011, trying to get the vote out for Labour’s Stephen Curran in this most marginal of contests. And I remember how futile it felt watching the SNP win an overall majority, and Nicola Sturgeon take Glasgow Southside by over 4,000 votes.

It's harder for candidates than activists, of course. It’s harder to be a sitting MP, MSP, or councillor who is rejected by their constituents and loses their job. And it’s harder again for those who have been in power, in the majority, and who see that majority evaporate overnight.

For a party that has been popular and in power for a long time, losing – especially a heavy loss – can be a hammer blow. It leaves a party and its members shellshocked and casting around for easy explanations and excuses. We see that whenever Labour lose power: they weren’t left-wing enough and their leaders were class traitors. If only they were more authentically left-wing they would have won.

We see the same when the Conservatives lose. We are seeing that play out right now, most prominently in Suella Braverman’s doubling down on the same anti-immigrant and anti-LGBT rhetoric that did nothing to help the Conservatives in the election last week. If only they were more right-wing, if only the party had indulged its worst instincts, they would have won.

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