Beckett report into Labour's General Election loss released: Read the full document

Margaret Beckett has released a 35-page report into why Labour lost the election last May

The report looks into why Labour lost the election (PA)

The Beckett report looking into why the Labour Party lost the General Election last year has been released.

The 35-page document was the result of the taskforce put together by former Labour deputy leader Margaret Beckett, who was asked by the then acting leader Harriet Harman to look into why Labour performed so badly.

On the report’s release, Ms Beckett said: “The reaction to the 2015 result was inevitably an emotional one for Labour because it was such a surprise. There was certainly no complacency in the Labour ranks, but the polls showed us neck and neck with the Tories, when clearly we weren’t.”

In the report, Ms Beckett cites the Scottish referendum as one of the reasons why the Labour party may not have done as well as expected in the election.

You can read the full report below:

Learning the Lessons from Defeat Taskforce Report by labourpress

The Beckett report comes as an independent inquiry found that the failure of last year’s polling to predict the outcome of the General Election was down to unrepresentative polling samples.