There may be some considerable holes in Corbyn’s sums, but there’s no denying that there are facts which underscore the popularity of his policies within the Labour party. David Miliband followers were not of the same profile as Tony Blair’s.
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Just to reinforce its loyalty, the editorial is accompanied by a lengthy article in which the SP pledges that the TUSC will act as the “electoral wing” for the “Corbyn insurgency” in next May’s local elections, whether he wins the leadership election or not.
Patrick Diamond, a former Labour coverage adviser who lectures at Queen Mary College of London, stated Corbyn’s marketing campaign has tapped into a sense “that the final Labour authorities was placing energy earlier than precept”.
Cicero director and chief corporate counsel Iain Anderson suggests Corbyn would also likely promote an agenda focused on consumer costs for the private savings sector, picking up on the lead of his predecessor Ed Miliband, who attempted to push the government to introduce a cap on drawdown charges. It needs to be more relevant, more visionary and more tuned-in to the needs of its supporters – and, especially, it needs to be less like the Tories.
Just over a week remains until Culcheth man Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Mr Corbyn find out their fate over whether they will be given the responsibility of leading the Labour party back into power.
Few predicted that a candidate running on a radical anti-austerity platform would do so well, but what are the conditions that have given rise to his support?
For Alex Callinicos of the Socialist Workers Party, Corbyn’s victory “would be a great democratic success”, but it is “the extra-parliamentary movement that has grown up around him that will remain his source of strength”.
And like younger leftist events Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain, “Corbynmania” is firing up many individuals beforehand disillusioned with mainstream politics. Some say in private that they can not contemplate wriggling in broadcast interviews as they repeatedly defend Corbyn’s politics, past statements and fitness for public office. “The age of the spin physician is over”. The shadow health secretary has made loyalty his watchword and if Corbyn fails, he may believe the shadow cabinet members that served the new leader will be the ones best placed to pick up the pieces. Corbyn has little support among Labour legislators, but several nominated him for the leadership ballot in the belief that he was a harmless fringe figure who would broaden the debate.
Wildly popular among grassroot activists but isolated on the far left of fellow MPs, Jeremy Corbyn is poised this week to become the most unlikely leader ever of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party. However, following these elections, whatever happens, a cleavage between Labour Party membership and its leadership seems inevitable.
Corbyn is, as I’ve argued before, the rebel who came in from the Co-op, unable to demand loyalty from colleagues to whom he showed none.
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“Jeremy Corbyn is not going to be prime minister of the U.K”.
