Corbynism isn’t gone – there’s still hope it could shape the UK’s future

Last Sunday [2nd July], Jeremy Corbyn walked on stage at the Bradford Literature Festival to deafening applause and cheers from more than 700 people.

Both the audience’s size and fierce reaction were unexpected. I had been asked to chair the talk with the former Labour leader, and organisers had said weeks earlier that around 200 tickets had sold.

The reality had been particularly surprising since the media treats Corbyn as something of a non-person – a position made easier by the current Labour leadership obviously wanting him to disappear into never-never land.

Yet walking the short distance from the festival’s hospitality centre to the venue, Corbyn was constantly stopped by people wanting to talk to him, take selfies with him, and tell him how much they admired what he stood for.

Bear in mind that the event was not organised by ‘leftie’ supporters and took place in Bradford, a city with a mixed political makeup. The three inner-city parliamentary seats are held by Labour but adjacent constituencies, including Keighley, Shipley and Pudsey, are Tory. Plenty of people from these towns and further afield come to the festival, which has been running since 2014 and increasingly pulls in big names.

This year Corbyn had been invited to reflect on his views on international peace and security, in the context of a speech he made at the UN centre in Geneva six years ago when he was leader of the opposition.

His speech in Bradford focused on the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small corporate elite, exacerbated by tax avoidance, climate change, the refugee crisis and what he described as a “bomb first and think and talk later” approach to conflict resolution. He highlighted these same challenges in his 2017 speech. Six years on, they have only become more urgent.

When the 30-minute talk and subsequent discussion came to an end, there was a sustained standing ovation from the packed hall. In the words of one organiser, the staff were “blown away” by his reception. I learnt later that Corbyn gets this kind of reaction just about anywhere he goes – it was not a one-off by a long shot – but there is little or no media coverage of this.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of his continued popularity is that it comes amid a backdrop of hostility from the Labour Party leadership.

Days before Corbyn took to the stage in Bradford, the party’s leadership put the head of the cross-party centrist Compass movement, Neal Lawson, under investigation. The move, which is seen by many as a step towards suspension and surprised even experienced Labour politicians, is part of an alleged wider ‘purge’.

As one backbencher told me a few days ago when I asked whether they felt safe: “The noose is certainly tightening. There’s likely a bullet with my name on it but the pulling of the trigger is either part of a pre-prepared sequence of shots or on a tripwire, ie don’t vote for this and this happens.”

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Labour bosses are trying to prevent the Alexei Sayle-narrated film, ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn: the Big Lie’, from being screened in any Labour Party-linked venue or meeting, or indeed, anywhere – the inevitable result being crowded back-room showings throughout the country.

Much of the criticism of Corbyn has been directed at the issue of antisemitism, but the Forde Report last year concluded that antisemitism had been used as a “factional weapon” by Corbyn’s critics, as well as being denied by his supporters.

The report, led by barrister Martin Forde, had been commissioned by Starmer in 2020 and was expected to come out strongly against ‘Corbynites’. While certainly critical of them in several respects, it found evidence of “toxicity on both sides” of the Labour Party and was scathing about the bitter antagonism of senior paid officials in head office towards Corbyn and his policies.

This brings us back to the support shown for Corbyn in Bradford last week and how it is being repeated around the country. In trying to explain this, there is a persuasive argument that the issues covered in his speech – international peace and conflict issues including climate breakdown, refugees, marginalisation, current wars and the like – are simply not being addressed by Labour and certainly not by the current government. This is leaving many voters who want these issues centre-stage politically homeless. In representing these ideals, Jeremy Corbyn is filling a substantial gap.

More than that, in conversations with those who have been forced out or marginalised in Labour Party circles, I have come across a shared view that goes something like this: The elite vision for the UK is long-term Tory rule punctuated by occasional short periods of safe centre-right breathing space when the Tories get a bit jaded. Starmer fits the bill perfectly – provided the party is properly cleansed of anything progressive – as will Wes Streeting in due course.

Over the top, maybe, but with Labour going even for people like Lawson, as well as closing down constituency-level debate on so many issues, you can see how such a conclusion could be drawn.

Such a view is unlikely to have much impact in the year or so before the general election, which Labour is expected to win.

But given the collision of multiple challenges – ranging from the cost of living crisis to the failures of privatisation and the UK’s deteriorating public services – a Starmer government may find itself becoming hugely unpopular very quickly, leading to a risk of renewed political instability. At such a point, Corbyn’s approach, and that of large numbers of people sharing his views, may then come to the fore.