Corbyn’s skeletons are already tumbling out of the closet. What would happen if he was leader?

by Rob Marchant

If current polls are to be believed, Jeremy Corbyn is about to become Labour leader, not just by a small margin but by a landslide.

That is, as our own Atul Hatwal pointed out on Monday, a pretty significant “if”. For a number of reasons; protest voting in polls but not in elections, “shy” voters, ease of manipulation by flashmobs of more informal polls, difficulty of accuracy polling such a select group, further change in the final few weeks and so on. Given this, it is still perfectly possible that Corbyn will fall at the ballot stage, despite Westminster’s prevailing wisdom.

But let us suppose for a moment that he is genuinely on course to win.

In this case, we are at a genuinely historical turning point – a convulsion – for the party; one of a kind it has not really experienced since Ramsay MacDonald’s “betrayal” in the 1930s.

In short, the wilderness years of the Fifties and Eighties would soon start to look like a tea-party.

In the few short weeks following the election, the psychological state of at least a segment of the party, like any person after a cruel blow, has been evolving rapidly. In this case, from initial denial; through collective tantrum, angry with the world; through to depressive isolationism and potentially actual self-harm.

And the divide over the Corbyn “insurgency” is no longer an issue of right and left. While you might expect to hear noises from the political centre at Uncut, the concern here is not merely from the point of view of his politics, disastrously out of touch with the British electorate though it might be (for the record, Anthony Painter makes an admirable fist of taking these seriously and rebutting them point by point here).

No, for many on the party’s left as well as the right, the reality is that the party is looking to take on a leader with personal credentials considerably less attractive than those of Michael Foot. If you still doubt this, read on.

We have already heard about Corbyn’s disturbing apologism for the IRA in its heyday, his “friends” Hamas and Hezbollah. Phenomena comfortably explained away by his supporters as “engagement” in the cause of peace. But in the space of twenty-four hours, two rather more damning stories have surfaced.

First, Monday night’s Channel 4 interview. Over the last couple of weeks, his campaign has sat in awkward silence over claims that he donated to, and attended meetings of, Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR), a pro-Palestinian campaign which even the highly questionable Palestine Solidarity Campaign (see here) sees as extreme.

It is run by a self-confessed Holocaust-denier, Paul Eisen. Naturally, Corbyn’s supporters – in true hard-left (or SNP) fashion – have dismissed this as a “smear”. However, as that ever-polite Times columnist, Danny Finkelstein, tweeted last weekend:

When pressed in that Monday interview, Corbyn finally admitted – back, metaphorically, to the wall – that he may have donated to DYR: but it was ok, on the grounds that Eisen wasn’t an anti-Semite when he met him, it would have been cash not a cheque, and that it was years ago.  Today, in response to the Jewish Chronicle’s questioning on the matter he shifted position to now say “he has no recollection of contributing” to DYR.  He also says “he did attend DYR events in the past but no longer does so.”

Inconvenient then that there’s a photo of Corbyn attending DYR’s meeting in 2013. Which was not really so many years ago and, indeed, Eisen is on record as calling himself a Holocaust denier in 2012. In the same interview, Corbyn was questioned on his links to Raed Salah, the renowned hate-preacher, convicted not only of funding Hamas but of spreading the “blood libel”, an age-old anti-Semitic trope that Jews bake bread with the blood of gentiles. His answer was, and I quote: “He did not at any stage utter any anti-Semitic remarks to me”. Well, that’s sorted that out, then. He can’t possibly be anti-Semitic, I guess. As Dan Hodges, sometime of this parish, put it:   

Second: that same night, former Tory MP Louise Mensch published the rather unwelcome fact that, apart from once being booked to appear speaking on the same platform as Salah, Corbyn had in 2009 himself invited another unsavoury character to speak at Parliament. In this case, the Lebanese activist Dyab Abou Jahjah. Mensch’s piece on “Every dead British soldier is a victory” Jajah is a good read, deftly pointing out his violent anti-Semitism, homophobia and Holocaust revisionism. Nice. It was picked up by the Daily Mail and was the centre-piece of Corbyn’s slot on the World At One earlier.

These two stories surfaced within twenty-four hours. Now imagine the damage which could be done to the party inside twenty-four months.

Exactly how much more evidence of one hapless man’s inability to distinguish good people from bad do we need?

The thing is with the Corbynistas, they have missed two vital vulnerabilities about their man’s wanting to be a party leader and potential prime minister.

One: that you have to really want it, which it is certainly arguable that Corbyn does not. In order to really want it, a pre-requisite is that you have spent a large part of your political career behaving yourself, so as not to leave hostages to fortune later.

This has clearly not happened here. The campaign was a largely unplanned scramble and it shows.

Two: as I have observed before about Labour’s former Mayor of London, the age of the internet has created a cruel trap for the careless. In the blink of an eye, a blog photo or a YouTube video of you on can show the world something questionable you did a decade ago, and in a way that cannot be disputed. It is hard to misdirect the public (“look over there!”) do a soft-shoe shuffle and hope no-one notices. They will suss you.

You cannot seriously attempt to lead a party under such circumstances. Even if the polls are right, it is yet quite possible that Corbyn’s leadership bid will self-destruct well before voting is over. At the current rate of skeletons exiting closets, the campaign is fast becoming a political Night of the Living Dead.

So, lovers of an electable Labour party, as a force for helping the many not the few: take heart. There is still all to play for.

But uncomfortable truths will, and must, out. We should not be shy of speaking them.

Rob Marchant is an activist and former Labour Party manager who blogs at The Centre Left


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42 Responses to “Corbyn’s skeletons are already tumbling out of the closet. What would happen if he was leader?”

  1. Cyclefree says:

    Another story which is also relevant. In August 2014, the Stop the War Coalition – Chair = one Jeremy Corbyn – said that it opposed the US intervention against IS to save the Yazidis from their grim fate at the hands of IS – murder, rape, enslavement.

    So Corbyn is opposed to intervention to stop IS depravity.

    How does Labour think this will look to the general public? Is this what Labour values now amount to – not opposing barbarians because it might involve being on the same side as the US?

  2. Madasafish says:

    I am sorry but ” too little too late” is the cry here. After all, why have the rightwing press and eeh Conservative Party kept quiet? They – and anyone who does any of the most basic kind of research KNOW that Mr Corbyn has more skeletons in his cupboard than a University anatomy class.

    BUT they are holding fire 1) not to influence the election and 2) to stuff Labour in the future. It’s all rather obvious and entirely predictable.

    And the Labour Party have fallen hook , line and sinker for it.

    I have said before I expect Labour to poll at 25% if Corbyn becomes Leader.. I suspect that may be generous.

    And it’s all the Labour Party’s own fault and the desperation of its supporters who were tole by Ed Miliband that austerity was not needed and there is a money tree.

    You all deserve Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. I expect it will be a marriage made in hell..If he wins. And if he loses, you will wish he had won as his supporters will make life hell for the winner.

    Next time you decide to elect a Leader, follow the rules (no lending of MPs’ votes) and remember if HH is involved it will be a shambles.

    I need to lay in 3 years’ worth of popcorn..

    And the UK badly needs a coherent Opposition. Labour are not coherent..

  3. Bob says:

    How many labour supporters have memebers of their families or friends who or have been members of HM forces and would like Corbyn as their leader. Really does make you think.

  4. Nick Palmer says:

    For an “unplanned scramble” the campaign seems remarkably successful – in fact, the only campaign to have systematic meeting and policy announcements every day. I wish that all my well-planned campaigns had gone as well.

    As for the “he once sat with X who on another occasion said disgusting thing Y” stuff, I’m really not persuaded. Anyone who’s been in politics for 50 years will meet some dubious characters (I once worked on a conservation campaign with someone who turned out to be a BNP member – so what?).

    I’m not especially left-wing. I’m certainly not anti-semitic – I’m a former executive member of Labour Friends of Israel. But I’ve voted for Corbyn. We need a fresh injection of idealism – the well of aimless centrism and triangulation has run dry.

    Nick Palmer (Labour MP for Broxtowe 1997-2010)

  5. Tafia says:

    Clutching at straws. Brown’s government negotiated with Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi militia while they were actually attacking British troops in Basra and Cameron’s government negotiated with the Taleban in Afghanistan – again while they were engaging British troops. Both groups being violently anti-semitic and one being allied to al Queda.

    As for Channel 4 interview – would this be the one by the largely discredited syory fabricating anti-muslim Cathy Newman

    But more importantly, most people don’t give a toss about the middle east anyway. Or Northern Ireland. They find it boring, childish and of no relevance to them other than they don’t want any British troops involved.

    Be racism and sexism stories next, possibly somer animal or child cruelty and maybe allegations of drug abuse, hookers and a gambling habit. If you want taking seriously stop being a joke.

  6. Jimmy says:

    Those who call Jeremy an anti semite (unfairly in my view) miss the point. Jeremy’s world view is a simple one. He does not share western values. He has little time for capitalism, for bourgeois democracy or for NATO. More than anything else he hates the United States and regards it as the principal source of the world’s ills. If you share those core beliefs, then you are a member of team Corbyn, however loathsome and repellent your other views may be. It’s not that Jeremy shares those views. He just doesn’t really care.

  7. saddo says:

    If he does win, there’s no way he’ll get normal leader of the opposition treatment.

    Is their any sane person in the UK who would want him to see security briefings as an example

  8. blair says:

    Tafia is right in one respect – you always talk, even if you’re in the middle of a conflict. Every soldier will tell you that conversation is greatly preferable to combat, especially if you direct and use the conversation to achieve your aims, or at least enough of them to accord with your particular set of needs at the time. I don’t have the sense that JC and his people understand the idea of negotiation. They’re big on demonstration and gesture, detail and persistence – and constructive, inclusive behaviour – not so much.

    I think my concern about Corbyn is that he is hardwired to act in a contrary fashion and to reject, instinctively, what appears reasonable and desirable to the ordinary folk of the land. He is indisciplined, disloyal and, to be charitable, has been alarmingly inclusive in the range of folk whose views he has chosen to support.

    Elect him and it’ll be a disaster for the party. I don’t mind, in the longer term it’s going to be good for the Labour party, perhaps it will finally fissure into a social democratic and a socialist party (although, this time, try not to join up with the Liberals, eh?) – but I worry that, in the meantime, the only Opposition around will be the SNP, a party which sees itself as an insurgency operating inside a foreign parliament.

  9. For context says:

    For context.

    Here’s a statement from the extremist in question: http://www.aboujahjah.org/articles-and-columns/on-my-link-to-jeremy-corbyn-and-the-smear-campaign-against-me-and-him-in-the-uk

    Here’s his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyab_Abou_Jahjah

    Here’s the column he writes for the centre right “De Standaard” newspaper in Belgium: http://www.standaard.be/plus/tag/column-abou-jahjah

  10. Luke says:

    I believe this is only the tip of the iceberg. Labour is about to elect as its leader a man in up to his neck with hateful extremists and bigots, Islamists, jihadi apologists, fundamentalists, terrorist supporters, Kremlin lickspittles, and people who simply hate Britain. And working class and middle class people, who want security and are patriotic, and are not full of the self loathing and self hatred of Corbynism, will see the hypocrisy of this leader and the left wing that selected him and Labour, they are going to be made aware of this in a relentless avalanche, and when it comes to the election, they will vote for UKIP or the Tories, and Labour will be wiped off the face of the planet at the next election. And you know what? Labour deserves nothing else for this. And who knows if it ever shall recover?

  11. Paul Canning says:

    As I published 16 days ago and has ‘come out’ – sigh – today Corbyn gave an interview to the American loony tunes fascist Lyndon LaRouche organisation http://paulocanning.blogspot.com/2015/08/corbyn-and-ukraine-its-not-pretty.html

    This is not “he once sat with X who on another occasion said disgusting thing Y” stuff, as Nick Palmer puts it. This is who, at minimum, advises this idiot? Does he even bother researching, er, stuff?

    Plus, as I patiently explain, Corbyn is a paid-up supporter of Russian imperialism. Not that I am expecting Cathy Freeman or any other MSM journo to nail him on that one – yet.

  12. paul barker says:

    This is all true enough but while it may damage Labour in elections that doesnt neccesarily mean it will damage Corbyn & The Lefts support within your Party. Sometimes attacks from outside simply strenthen the team in charge – the SNP is an obvious case.
    Any idea that Corbyn could be thrown out in a few months is fantasy, anyone intending to fight The Left from within Labour had better be prepared for a long & brutal war – their may not be anything left worth having at the end of it.

  13. Rob,

    Your previous comments of

    ” it [the PLP by including Jeremy Corbyn in the ballot] has strengthened the voice of its most extreme wing far beyond its genuine representation in the Labour Party (if you don’t believe this, wait and see how Corbyn actually polls in September…..)

    and

    “… a tiny contingent in the party who have zero chance of success.”

    would seem to undermine your credibility as a pundit.

    Might your latest comment of:

    “disastrously out of touch with the British electorate..”

    be similarly wide of the mark? If you can’t gauge the mood of members of your own party……

  14. Madasafish says:

    I see Russel Brand has declared his support for Mr Corbyn.

    Anyone whom he supports is doomed in a GE.

  15. It seems the Israeli government lobbyists in the UK feel they can influence just about every election in Britain. We saw it with the last London mayoral election, the shameful attacks on Ed Miliband over the Palestinian state vote in parliament, and now lets dig the dirt on Corbyn. I wonder if we look at who Tony Blair has met in the last few years whether we can find a few anti-Semites? Surely that photo of him kissing Gadaffi should be enough to block him taking a whole floor at the King David again.

  16. Agnes says:

    Corbyn’s conduct is not hapless or foolish – it is calculated.
    Years ago the Left made the calculation that if they appease muslim bigotry they will get muslim support.
    For every 1 jewish voter there are 10 muslim ones.
    To the Left it does’nt matter how many white girls are raped in Rotherham, how many synagogues are burnt or how many Brit citizens are sluagthered so long as the muslims like them.

  17. tim says:

    I have to say that I think Corbyn would be a breath of fresh air for UK politics (I am not a Labour supporter by the way).
    However, sometimes it’s small comments that get to the heart of the matter, and the article manages to do it (for me at least) with this one line:
    “Exactly how much more evidence of one hapless man’s inability to distinguish good people from bad do we need?”

    Indeed.

  18. Jim Greer says:

    Corbyn’s willingness to share a platform with unpleasant people is sadly a symptom of the hard left more generally. Some people seem to live in binary world where people are devided neatly into goodies and baddies and once a religious or geographical group is identified as being oppressed all their bad behaviour is either ignored or rationalised away. You see this all the time in sites like Counterfire who will go on at great length about how Cage don’t mean violence when they mention jihad and how traditional forms of dress are actually extremely liberating for women. They do a lot of damage to the potential support for socialist and liberal ideas.
    It ought be possible to oppose injustice without sharing a platform with people who don’t believe in liberal progressive values.

  19. Matt says:

    A response to Danny Speight:

    Do you honestly believe that it’s only the “Israeli lobby” that objects to extremists, hate preachers, and thoroughly dangerous and nasty people being invited into the UK parliament?

    Do you honestly think it’s only Jews who object to comments by Raed Saleh (the man who Corbyn fought to KEEP in the UK) describing Jews as “parasites” and “monkeys”?

    Do you honestly think anyone in Israel knows or cares about who Jeremy Corbyn is, or gives a flying fig about who the Labour party chooses as its leader?

    As an ordinary voter (and a floating one at that – exactly the kind of person Labour needs to court) I find the prospect of Corbyn as leader of the opposition, let alone PM, to be a terrifying one. Seeing his supporters blaming the “Israeli lobby” only reinforces that view.

  20. Richard says:

    I will discuss the essence of this argument which is that politically, the only person who can lead the LP and hope to become PM is somebody who in wanting to become PM so badly remains squeaky clean their entire life. This, it is argued, is because the Tories and the right wing press will eat any other candidate for breakfast by pulling out their skeletons (this sets aside your crazy position that the right wing press have left Corbyn alone thus far).
    It would seem that you have either you are so blinded by your anti-Corbyn sentiments that you’d say anything right now to turn supporters away or you fail to understand the nature of politics and the media in Britain. The fact is the British media

  21. Richard says:

    I will discuss the essence of this argument which is that politically, the only person who can lead the LP and hope to become PM is somebody who in wanting to become PM so badly remains squeaky clean their entire life. This, it is argued, is because the Tories and the right wing press will eat any other candidate for breakfast by pulling out their skeletons (this sets aside your crazy position that the right wing press have left Corbyn alone thus far).
    It would seem that you have either you are so blinded by your anti-Corbyn sentiments that you’d say anything right now to turn supporters away or you fail to understand the nature of politics and the media in Britain.
    The fact is the British mass media will rip apart anybody or any organisation who threaten the status quo. It’s not just sketetons it’s gender; race, sexuality; dress sense; in fact anything they want by using half truths, innuendo, smear, guilt by association and so on.
    Fact is the labour movement has been bombarded by these tactics in strikes and disputes so often that I am surprised I even have to mention is, it really should be a given. The only time they leave us alone is when we cravanly accept every tenet of the status quo or propose reforms that are perceived as acceptable.
    It’s time we straightened our backs, accepted what the Tories, in the media or out, will try to do and plan to combat it rather than adapt to everything they argue for. Thankfully, giants within the Labour Movement, leaders and grassroots, didn’t adhere to the idea that we must be acceptable and did it anyway.

  22. john P Reid says:

    well said Cycle free

  23. James Clavelli says:

    Three words: Paedophile Information Exchange.

  24. Cary says:

    Corbyn has also been let off explaining his lack of action on child sex abuse allegations in Islington care homes. Several people have come forward to state they had told him what they knew, after which Corbyn ignored them. All we have on the public record from Corbyn is an angry denial of the accusations made by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens. If a Catholic bishop has treated allegations against his priests in such a manner there would be uproar.

  25. sumgeezer says:

    The Labour leadership election needs to be halted now, I agree 100% with Ms Harman. For the price of £3, people are able to register multiple times under different names, from various anti-Labour political backgrounds include Tories and the extreme left, as well as various terror supporting nutjobs. It is insane to let enemies overthrow Labour in this way.

  26. Twinkle says:

    Cobyn could be leader of a rump far left Labour party chemically cleansed of all non-believers such as the moderates and far-rignt Blairistas and wholly owned by the unions to do their bidding.

  27. GSilver says:

    back in the day you could deny you said or did something and the lack of access to the source information for the vast majority of people meant there was credible doubt. now the internet, social media etc has you bang to rights chummy.

    every idiotic 6th form marxist pronouncement Corbyn has ever made about hamas, Israel, islam, the ira will be available for every last voter in the UK to poke with a stick. Jezzer is going to die the death of a thousand inappropriate, west hating comments/actions and he’s going to take the labour party with him.

    a sad loss but inevitable given labour has simply no idea what its doing anymore.

  28. John P. Reid says:

    Twinkle NF auxh. Party would be about as popular as the TUSc

  29. Well said Richard. We’ve all got skeletons in our cupboard. In may case it’s a youthful flirtation with the SWP. In my defence I might say I was always on the right -wing of the SWP! 🙂

    I was really more a Bennite, frustrated with the limitations of the British Labour party. There’s a big difference between Bennism and Trotskyism though and it took me some time to understand that.

  30. Matt W says:

    > DYR’s meeting in 2013.

    Following the link, this meeting was held in an Anglican Parish church, St John’s Wood Church.

    Interesting choice of location. Interesting choice to permit that event in that location.

  31. NBeale says:

    Simply attending an event at a Parish Church can hardly be damning. Indeed if this guy is so bad it’s amazing that the Vicar agreed to host it.

    But for Corbyn to claim that he had no contact when he was at a 2013 event is NOT good.

  32. TC says:

    Skeletons in the closet, eh. I was expecting a link to some unsolved 70s cult murders, having a few tonnes of nazi gold stashed in his Islington basement, a role in a porn film featuring Latvian dwarves and horses, maybe a love child or seven.

    Instead, what I got was that he was at the same meeting (in a parish church no less!) with some people who have said some unpleasant things. It’s desperately weak stuff. I love the comments about ‘just wait until the Tory press gets hold of all this – they must be holding fire deliberately’, as opposed to the far more likely explanation for the lack of harm it’s done him, which is that no one gives a toss about these shocking revelations.

    ‘The campaign was a largely unplanned scramble and it shows.’

    It shows in the way he’s got the most constituency parties behind him, has a clear lead in every poll, that he’s played a huge part inspiring thousands upon thousands to join the Labour party, that he’s filling out and overflowing venues up and down the country, that he’s 2/7 ON to win at the bookies? But were all Labour campaigns this much of an unplanned scramble!

  33. Cynic says:

    “I met that nice Mr Hitler. He was terribly charming. A vegetarian and artist. And no I didnt hear any breaking glass shop windows and he never said “Ihr kommt” to me

  34. john P Reid says:

    TC its not just Corbyn but his supporters who’ll have the skeletons ones to close for him to distance himself from, this week Sinn Fein are believed connected to A IRA killing, so that’s what could damage him

  35. TC says:

    John P. Reid,

    I’m having some trouble parsing what you wrote. Are you referring to the McGuigan murder? If so, what in the world does that have to do with Jeremy Corbyn?

  36. Tafia says:

    John P Reid – this week Sinn Fein are believed connected to A IRA killing, so that’s what could damage him

    Latest statement from PSNIs senior investigating officer regarding the murder “It is my assessment that Action Against Drugs are a group of individuals who are criminals, violent dissident republicans and former members of the Provisional IRA. They are dangerous, they are involved in violence and extortion of the nationalist and republican communities. My assessment is that this is a separate group from the Provisional IRA. I have no information at this stage to say whether [the killing] was sanctioned at a command level or not.”

    The bit in bold means therefore that being as PSNI accept the dissident groups have nothing to do with Sinn Fein, who in turn don’t speak for or to any armed group except PIRA, that they (PSNI) don’t think there is any Sinn Fein involvement.

  37. Henrik says:

    @Tafia: DAAD was formerly a flag of convenience for PIRA when on ceasefire to allow them to administer ‘community justice’ – usually with hurleys or 9mm rounds – against undesirables, social outcasts, dealers, junkies and anyone who’d ever punched a snotty ‘Volunteer’ outside the Felons Club. I suppose it may be possible that the label has survived but the folk using it have changed slightly. I doubt it, though, there’s an issue of brand protection here and I might suggest that the PSNI investigating officer is perhaps following a script.

    Doesn’t take away from the fact that Comrade Jeremy has form for, not just engaging in dialogue with Sinn Fein and the ‘Ra during the armed struggle and supporting a 32-county United Ireland – which was foolish, but not really that important – but also for actively supporting the brave Volunteers in their struggle and drawing some explicit moral equivalents between them and the British Army, in the same charming and constructive way he characterises the US Armed Forces as being morally equivalent to Daesh.

    He’s been doing this stuff for years and everyone just said “ah well, that’s just Jeremy”, as it really didn’t matter. Now it does matter and it’s only reasonable he comes under a degree of scrutiny. I sense it’s too late and he’ll be your new leader, well, good luck with that, comrades.

    As I’ve noted before (since 2010 or so here, in fact), this is a battle you’ve got to have with yourselves if you’re going to end up creating a credible Opposition, with positive policies which are convincing and attractive and which might persuade folk to vote for you. The fact that it’s hilarious to watch is an unexpected bonus.

  38. Tafia says:

    Henrik, not only are you at variance with today’s fresh PSNI announcement, but you are in fact woefully out of step. In fact, it would be fair to say that the pressure is now building on the DUP/UUP to shut the f**k up or withdraw from Stormont and leave SF, SDLP and APNI running it in their own – effectively disenfranchising the entire unionist community.

    As for “Now it does matter” – it doesn’t actually, I’ve yet to meet anyone in the real world – including my ex-Army buddies, who actually give a toss. Very few people actually care anymore. It’s over. Move on. There’s plenty of WW2 veterans and survivors of the Concentration Camps who were buying Porsche and Japanesse products. If you can’t draw a line, step away and move forward there’s no point to you and you’re actually a hinderance.

    Incidentally, Thatcher’s government held secret talks with the ‘Ra – and they actually tried to kill her (we only have to be lucky once and all that rubbish).

  39. Henrik says:

    @Tafia: Oh, I’ve moved on and am delighted with how well, relatively speaking, things are going in the Province. There’s still violence, there’s still ‘community justice’ – aka vigilantism – and there’s still an unusual social structure which folk who’ve never lived and worked there won’t understand, but, in general, things are going well, as Seamus Mallon once put it, under ‘Sunningdale for slow learners’.

    My take on ‘it mattering’ was not specifically about JC and his attitude to the armed struggle, it was more general about JC himself – what I had in mind was that he’s been a thoroughly marginal figure ever since he and Tony Blair both entered Parliament in the 1983 election and he’s been able to plough his own, lonely furrow on the back benches for many years without anyone, much, paying him any attention and dismissing his open disloyalty to his party, its leadership and his fellow members as ‘just Jeremy’.

    There is now a possibility, perhaps even a probability, that he will get a new and much bigger role in the party and this means that he should not be surprised if folk look long and hard at his background and track record.

    Every government ever has had some contact with its opponents. That’s what governments do. It’s a fundamentally different thing from some backbench loon with no portfolio and zero influence on national policy doing it.

  40. jane says:

    How the mighty have fallen. Just a few weeks ago, Stalinist firebrand, Jeremy Corbyn, was the Golden Boy of the British Left.

    But now, Corbyn is coming under fire for his alleged links to extremists and racists.

    Corbyn has already confessed that he’s been in the same room as people who’ve gone on to say bad things.

    But it doesn’t stop there. Here, on this blog, we can exclusively reveal 6 more links Corbyn doesn’t want you to know about.

    https://markfiddaman.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/6-links-jeremy-corbyn-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about/

  41. Jeremy Corbyn voted WITH David Cameron MORE than he did with Labour during the last Labour govt,I bet he doesn t tell the crowds that! Corbyn s skeletons are already tumbling out of the closet.

  42. Ian Ryals says:

    Corbyn is not exactly refusing to answer; the BBC is obligingly just not asking him. I wonder how it would fly if Boris Johnson were found to have given money to Nick Griffin, attended his rallies, called the English Defence League his friends, and then added airily but I hate racism and I m just opening a dialogue?

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