Why Populists Are Winning
and How to Beat Them
Published on 26. March 2026
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-0359-2092-1 (ISBN)
Description
'Required reading' Andrew Marr, New Statesman
'A welcome shot of serious thought' Financial Times
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 a 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.
'A welcome shot of serious thought' Financial Times
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 a 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.
Reviews / Votes
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 * The most intellectually serious thing a Labour politician has produced in years... Labour ministers should read this book. Those circling the leadership should study it. Regulators should act on its findings * Politics Home * Byrne is good both on the malign role played in that rise by woefully unregulated social media and on the entrenchment of authoritarianism once such parties have been elected * TLS *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 143 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
334 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0359-2092-1 (9781035920921)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2026
Apollo
€15.99
Available for download
Person
The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP is a British Labour Party politician and the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North. He is a member of His Majesty's Privy Council and the Chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee. He chaired the Global Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund 2019-2025. He served in the Cabinet in 10 Downing Street and Her Majesty's Treasury. An Honorary Professor of Social Science at the University of Birmingham, Liam was the 2024-2025 Visiting Parliamentary Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Harvard Business School and Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. Before entering politics, Liam first worked in strategic consulting and banking; in 2000, he founded a fast-growing venture-backed European technology company. He is the author of more than twenty publications on economics, foreign policy and public service reform. His book, THE INEQUALITY OF WEALTH: WHY IT MATTERS AND HOW TO FIX IT, was shortlisted for the Westminster Book Awards 2024.