2020 is finally coming to an end. We’ve been through a lot this year. It kicked off with Labour leadership elections when we were trying to recover from a terrible general election defeat. It is ending with Brexit ‘getting done’. Above all, of course, we will remember being hit by a pandemic leading to many deaths and changes to lives across the world that are still difficult to take in.

It has been a year unlike most others. To show how it was seen through the eyes of LabourList readers, we’ve put together a list of the most-read news story of each month in 2020…

January

Rolling list: MP/MEP nominations for Labour leadership candidates

Our first most-read story of 2020 was our rolling list of parliamentary nominations for Labour leadership candidates in the first stage of the race. Each one needed 10% of Labour MP and MEPs – a total of 22 – in order to progress. This saw Clive Lewis withdraw from the contest, while Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry all reached the threshold. Starmer was way out in front with 88 nominations. RLB had 33, Nandy 31, Phillips and Thornberry 23 each.

February

Rolling list: CLP nominations in Labour’s 2020 leadership race

Right, I promise they won’t all be like this. Our second most-read was another rolling list in the Labour leadership election – this time of local party nominations, i.e. the second stage of the race. Phillips withdrew, leaving four candidates still in the running. Long-Bailey, Nandy, Starmer and Thornberry needed to secure either nominations from 5% of local parties, or they could pass through the affiliate route (which the final three did, but Thornberry had to rely on local parties). Again, Starmer emerged as the frontrunner with 374 nominations, while Long-Bailey had 163, Nandy 72 and Thornberry 31.

March

Government is pressing ahead with A&E closures despite Covid-19

By quite some way, this short write-up was LabourList‘s most-read news story of March, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK. “The government is continuing with plans to close existing A&E departments and intensive care units in the capital despite the decision to open a new field hospital in east London to deal with pressure caused by Covid-19,” Elliot reported.

April

Keir Starmer finalises shadow cabinet appointments

There was no denying the severity of the Covid crisis at this point, but this was also the month that the Labour leadership election concluded. Perhaps surprisingly, the story with the most hits is not our write-up of the result but this story on Starmer’s shadow cabinet appointments a few days later. I think I remember writing it up very quickly, which obviously makes a difference. All of the initial appointments are still in place apart from Long-Bailey, who was sacked in June. (The next most-read stories were the shadow ministerial appointments and the Labour leaks report.)

May

17 Labour MPs including Corbyn slam PM’s “declaration of class war”

This is barely a write-up, without even an author attached to the copy. To my irritation, it’s often those stories you do least for that go big. (Proving the point further, the next most-read in May was a watch post on Matt Hancock telling Dr Rosena Allin-Khan that she had the wrong “tone”.) But people were interested in the statement released by 17 Labour MPs, including former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who described the Prime Minister’s statement on lifting coronavirus restrictions as a “thinly veiled declaration of class war”.

June

Rebecca Long-Bailey criticised for sharing Maxine Peake interview

June was a quiet month. The main story was Long-Bailey’s sacking: we wrote that up, along with a quick analysis piece, but the one that got the most hits was about the criticism she received that day before being stood down by Starmer. “Rebecca Long-Bailey has been criticised for sharing an interview in which Maxine Peake claims that US police learnt the practice of kneeling on people’s necks “from seminars with Israeli secret services”,” it started.

July

Legal fund for Corbyn reaches £160,000 after Labour’s Panorama settlement

As the summer rolled on, the site was still more quiet than usual. I took a week off. Then Elliot alone was faced with a big story: the Panorama settlement. Labour under Starmer’s leadership decided to apologise and settle its libel case with former Labour staffers and journalist John Ware. Corbyn criticised this move, calling it a “political decision, not a legal one”. It was then reported that Ware would take legal action against him, and a fund was set up to support Corbyn. The GoFundMe page has now raised over £360,000.

August

55% of LabourList readers predict a Tory government after the next election

“LabourList readers are gloomy about Labour’s chances of winning the next general election, our latest survey has revealed, with a majority believing that a Tory government is the most likely outcome. Asked about the result expected in 2024, 55% of our readers said some kind of Conservative or Conservative-led administration was most probable, versus 45% for Labour, when excluding ‘don’t know’ answers.”

September

Boris Johnson squirms as Ed Miliband grills him on law-breaking Brexit bill

“Boris Johnson squirmed in his seat on the government frontbench this afternoon as Ed Miliband, standing in for Labour leader Keir Starmer, grilled him on the controversial internal market bill being put to the Commons today.” The Labour leader was self-isolating, so Miliband stepped up and excoriated the Prime Minister over his law-breaking legislation to great effect. It’s worth another watch now.

October

Exclusive: Unions release joint statement on Labour suspension of Corbyn

“Seven trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party have released a joint statement expressing “serious concerns” over the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn and urging the party leadership to “repair this damage”, LabourList can exclusively reveal.” This came after Corbyn was suspended from the party over his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission report that found Labour responsible for unlawful acts in its poor handling of antisemitism complaints.

November

Labour NEC election results boost support for Starmer on ruling body

Keir Starmer increased the strength of support for his leadership on Labour’s core ruling body following the release of fresh internal election results giving rise to a new national executive committee in November. “The UK Labour leader now has a more solid majority on the NEC,” I wrote. Indeed, these results were followed by other widely-read news stories on Margaret Beckett becoming NEC chair instead of the FBU’s Ian Murray. This results write-up was accompanied by a live analysis event in which four of us discussed the details and potential consequences.

December

Keir Starmer: Labour has six tests for Brexit – if they’re not met we won’t back the final deal in parliament

All my work this month has been for nothing! Our most popular news story of the month was not published in December, nor even this year. It is the list of six tests for any Brexit deal put forward by Starmer back in March 2017. “Failure to meet the tests I have set out today will of course affect how Labour votes in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister should be under no illusion that Labour will not support a deal that fails to reflect core British values and the six tests I have set out today,” he said at the time. This has been shared and read this week as Labour MPs were whipped by Starmer, now leader, to back Boris Johnson’s deal.