Former Labour policy chief Claire Ainsley has announced a new book examining why people increasingly feel they have lost control over their lives, politics and the economy — and how that sense of agency can be rebuilt.
Control: How We Lost It and How to Take It Back will be published by Biteback Publishing on 3 November 2026. Ainsley says the book draws on her experience inside politics, alongside the experiences of people who have felt power slipping away from them.
She said:
Based on my experiences inside politics and people who have had a loss of control, it is a plan to put us more in control of what matters.
A book about power, trust and political disillusionment
Biteback describes the book as an attempt to address what Ainsley sees as a central political problem: a widespread loss of agency over the forces shaping everyday life.
The publisher says the book looks at pressures including global capital, rapid technological change and weakened political autonomy, arguing that governments have struggled to deliver while voters have become increasingly frustrated and distrustful.
Ainsley argues that this gap between what people expect from politics and what institutions are able to deliver has helped fuel anxiety and created fertile ground for populist narratives.
‘Philosophy of control’
The book proposes what Ainsley calls a new “philosophy of control”, drawing on political strategy, psychology and her experience of policymaking.
Rather than treating political dissatisfaction simply as a communications problem, Ainsley argues that governments need to give people greater genuine control over the economic and social forces affecting their lives.
Biteback describes the book as a practical roadmap for restoring trust in democracy by putting people “back in the driving seat of their own lives”.
Former senior Labour policy figure
Ainsley served as Executive Director of Policy for the Labour Party under Keir Starmer from 2020 to 2022, after previously leading the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
She is now director of the Project on Centre-Left Renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington DC, where she works on international responses to populism, political change and the future of centre-left politics.
Her previous book, The New Working Class: How to Win Hearts, Minds and Votes, focused on how centre-left parties could reconnect with working-class voters.
Lessons for Labour after Starmer era
The new book is already attracting attention within political circles because of Ainsley’s proximity to Labour’s recent history.
Broadcaster Andrew Marr describes it as asking some of the biggest questions about what went wrong with contemporary politics and says it contains lessons from the Starmer era for the current Burnham Government.
Observer political editor Rachel Sylvester describes the book as a timely examination of the sense of political helplessness and crisis and how voters and politicians might regain control.
Published ahead of debate about Labour’s direction
The announcement comes just days before Labour Party Conference, where questions around trust, economic power, public services, technology and Labour’s future political direction are expected to feature prominently.
At 352 pages, Control will be published in hardback and ebook formats on 3 November.
Ainsley’s central argument is that rebuilding political trust requires more than changing leaders or slogans — it means giving people a greater sense of real control over the institutions, markets and technologies that shape their lives.
