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Left Out
Left Out
Dec 30, 2025 7:33 PM

Author:Gabriel Pogrund,Patrick Maguire

Left Out

'THE POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' Tim Shipman

A blistering narrative exposé of infighting, skulduggery and chaos in Corbyn's Labour party, now revised and updated.

* A Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and i Newspaper Book of the Year *

Left Out tells, for the first time, the astonishing full story of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat.

Drawing on unrivalled access, this blistering exposé moves 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. It reveals a party at war with itself, and puts the reader in the room as tensions boil over, sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking point.

This is the ultimate account of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation.

'Gripping... Every bit as good as people say' Guardian

'Reads like a thriller...told with panache and pace' Financial Times

'The definitive post-mortem of the Corbyn project' Sunday Times

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

An outstanding, balanced account of the Corbyn leadership from 2017-2019. My one tip? Don't read it late, you won't be able to sleep because of the anger

—— Aaron Bastani

Deeply reported ... reads like a thriller ... one of the more riveting stories in modern British political history ... told with panache and pace ... Gossip aside, Left Out delivers a piercing analysis of the pressures on Labour's leadership as the party broke on the rocks of Brexit

—— Financial Times

Brimming with such jaw-dropping moments, forensically gleaned from interviews with virtually all the leading characters from this extraordinary political period ... entertaining and immensely readable ... the scars and grudges, captured magnificently by Pogrund and Maguire, are still fresh ... The authors don't attempt to take sides ... instead they give ample space to both sides ... to allow readers to make up their own minds ... as sensational a tale as any TV drama ... one of the most remarkable periods in British political history, and Left Out is an objective, fact-packed and fascinating record of it

—— Telegraph*****

It really is every bit as good as people say; superbly written, exceptionally detailed, scrupulously fair, but above all gripping. It's hard to put down

—— Andrew Sparrow , Guardian

Meticulous and even-handed ... The book's detailed accounts of tension, fallings-out and the ingrained fondness for factional warfare on all sides of the Labour party often rock along

—— John Harris , Observer

Both a dark thriller and a farce ... admirably objective ... I have not read an account of the immediate past that is as thorough and balanced as that produced by Pogrund and Maguire ... [they] open all the previously sealed doors that were installed to protect the fragile leader

—— Steve Richards , Literary Review

There are many eye popping revelations in Left Out, the definitive post mortem of the Corbyn project

—— Helen Lewis , Sunday Times

Full of good stories [and] genuine insights ... well told and instructive ... In their excellent epilogue the authors draw back the lens and offer a calm and acute analysis of the Corbyn Project

—— Philip Collins , Sunday Times

One of the most absorbing and compulsive reads I have encountered in years ... Only by drawing on a huge range of willing sources could Pogrund and Maguire have produced such a rich narrative. It is to their immense credit that they produced such an amusing one

—— New European

A must-read for any Labour supporter who wants to know more about what went on behind the scenes ... whatever your factional allegiance ... its central theme is a truthful one

—— LabourList

Highly readable ... meticulously researched

—— Peter Mandelson , PoliticsHome

Maguire and Pogrund have, I am certain, spoken off the record to almost everyone who mattered on both sides of Labour's civil war ... a huge and detailed trove of revelations

—— New Statesman

Excellent

—— John Rentoul , Independent

A detailed account... [Left Out] contain[s] thoughtful observations that prompt wider questions about power and leadership, friendship and loyalty, solidarity and the capacity to engage people beyond your own camp.

—— Rachel Shabi , Prospect

China Room is very good at examining the trauma held in one family, whether it be personal or housed in a home, village, or country. Sahota seems to acknowledge that although we are not doomed to repeat the past, each subsequent generation feels a measure of the hardship that the last generation faced... a well-developed story of two lives that touch one another in ways that that can never be clearly seen.

—— India Lewis , Arts Desk

Engrossing, intricate, excellent.

—— Literary Review

Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways propelled him on to the 2015 Booker shortlist. His latest, China Room, a multi-generational masterpiece ... could well see him nominated again.

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail

Political currents seep subtly in and the cumulative effect is potent

—— Max Liu , i

Exquisitely written

—— Sameer Rahim , Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year*

Sunjeev Sahota balances weighty ideas about cultural prisons and self-determination with hushed, featherweight prose

—— Claire Allfree , The Times, *Books of the Year*

[A] hauntingly beautiful novel

—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail

Sahota's third novel has prose so beautiful it stops you dead

—— Daily Telegraph

Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways propelled him on to the 2015 Booker shortlist. His latest, China Room, a multi-generational masterpiece...could well see him nominated again

—— Stephanie Cross , Daily Mail, *Books to Look Out For 2021*
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