Why Populists Are Winning

In 2024, two billion people went to vote - and populism won big. Donald Trump returned to the White House. Marine Le Pen surged in France. Reform UK became Britain's most successful far-right party in modern history. Across the West, authoritarian populists now govern one-quarter of the world's democracies.

But is this peak populism - or the populists' tipping point?

From the counting halls of inner-city Birmingham to the trading floors of Wall Street, from the Heritage Foundation war room to the algorithmic outrage machines of social media, Liam Byrne exposes the forces propelling the populist surge - and reveals how to stop it.

Drawing on original polling of thousands of voters, interviews with leading thinkers, and on-the-ground reporting across Britain, Europe and America, Byrne decodes the populist playbook. He reveals populism's five tribes, showing which voters can still be won back. He traces the millions flowing into Britain's populist media-political complex. He maps the rhetoric populists use to weaponise fear and nostalgia. And he warns: democracies rarely collapse in normal times - they fall after the next crisis, when hope collapses.

WHY POPULISTS ARE WINNING sets out a bold plan to rebuild the radical centre of Western politics. It is a field manual for democratic renewal - written for anyone who refuses to let fear win.

Review

By far the most consistent and cogent attempt by a Labour MP to understand their enemy and respond with brio . required reading for anyone aspiring to be part of the drama swirling around No. 10 -- Andrew Marr ― New Statesman

Better understand populism to defeat it, argues Liam Byrne with wonderful, persuasive verve backed by wide research. It's much less deep rooted than you might think. By the end he had convinced me how it can be done. Let him convince you! -- Will Hutton

Liam Byrne is one of the sharpest minds in Westminster and never has a book been more timely. Required reading -- Ruth Davidson

An important, timely and insightful book that sets out why - and crucially how - we need to fight for our democracy and social justice -- Gordon Brown

A welcome shot of serious thought about populism ― Financial Times

[A] short but ambitious book . in which populism is considered with rigour and originality. Byrne neatly lays out the movement's paradoxes and hypocrisies. It's against elites, but led and funded by the rich. It presents itself as a mass uprising, but relies on low turnouts for much of its electoral success. It talks a lot about freedom, but its policies are authoritarian. It promises a glorious future, but its social vision is 'soaked in the brandy of nostalgia' - one of several rich and irreverent images with which Byrne decorates his chapters . Byrne is refreshingly interested in the world beyond Westminster orthodoxies ― Guardian

Energetic and provocative ... combines polemic with polling data and sombre research-led analysis of the state of the nation ― The Times

About the Author

The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP is a British Labour Party politician, a member of His Majesty's Privy Council and the Chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee. Liam served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet, in No. 10 Downing Street and HM Treasury, and chaired the Global Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and IMF, 2019-2025.

Liam is the author of more than twenty publications on economics, foreign policy and public service reform. His previous book, The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix it, was shortlisted for the Westminster Book Awards 2024.