After five years, we’ve finally come to the end of the Jeremy Corbyn project

The mark that this unexpected Labour leader really leaves is to remind us that elections are fought in primary colours, writes John Rentoul

The unexpected leader had many highs and lows during his tenure (Getty)

No, Labour did not “win the argument” at the 2019 election, and no, Jeremy Corbyn was not “proved absolutely right” by the government’s response to the economic consequences of coronavirus. But the outgoing Labour leader has left more of a mark on Britain than some of his detractors allow.

As one of his detractors, I should know. He overturned my assumptions about politics. I assumed that he could not win the Labour leadership. I thought that Labour members, having experimented with comfort-blanket old-leftism under Ed Miliband, would not respond to losing by doubling their bet.

I accepted I was wrong with as much humility as I could – but then I assumed Corbyn could not win a general election. This was a more fundamental mistake. He didn’t win, but he came close enough to prove that he could have done. Another 10 seats lost by the Conservatives in 2017 and Corbyn would have been prime minister. I do not think that would have worked out well. I think Corbyn by his character is unsuited to any form of executive office, and he would have been the prisoner of an unstable coalition of non-Corbynite Labour MPs and Scottish nationalists.