Labour advisers want lessons learned from Harris defeat: voters set the agenda

Kamala Harris with Oprah Winfrey at a campaign rally in Philadelphia the day before the election. Senior Labour insiders have been scathing about the ‘parade of celebrities in the middle of a cost of living crisis’. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

There is a tough lesson that senior Labour advisers want some of their internal party critics to learn from the Democrats’ disastrous defeat. Optimism is not the answer they think it is.

When Kamala Harris’s campaign had the most momentum, the core of it was joy. And although the final weeks were dominated by darker warnings of fascism under Donald Trump, Harris returned to that theme of optimism in one of her final messages to supporters, saying they had “brought back the joy”.