The Unlikely Candidate: What Losing an Election Taught Me about How to Change Politics

Across the Western world, people are desperate for a radical shift in politics and for new kinds of politicians. Primary defeats for established figures and shock results in referendums are becoming the norm, while outsiders are shaking up political cultures.

In this book, Ali Milani, a rising star in the UK’s Labour Party, brings a unique perspective to the key political issues we're facing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and shows how young people from all walks of life can engage in politics to transform our country and the world.

Drawing on his rollercoaster campaign against Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the UK’s 2019 general election and his time in Bernie Sanders’ campaign team, he aims to inspire a new generation, including the disenfranchised, disillusioned and marginalised, to raise their voices and change mainstream politics for the better.

Ali Milani is a Labour Party politician, councillor, campaigner and activist. He served two years as Vice President of the National Union of Students, was elected as Labour Party councillor in the 2018 local elections, and was selected as the parliamentary candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in September 2018. He has worked on multiple UK Labour leadership campaigns, as well as presidential campaigns in the United States.