THE WESTMINSTER REVOLUTION OF 2017

Mr. Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, sounded prophetic in his first- hand account of his years in office and beyond titled: “Tony Blair:- a Journey”. Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997 and led Labour party to a historic three terms in office. Political historians describe him as the most dominant political figure of the last two decades.

Indeed, this charismatic politician seems to have prophetically but unknowingly written about the remarkable turn-around that took place on June 8, 2017 in his Labour Party with a surge in national support for the leadership capacity of the current Labour Party’s leader, Mr. Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn’s leadership prior to the snap elections of June 8, 2017 called by Theresa May of the Conservatives party, had weathered a storm of controversy that emanated from amongst the ranking members and also from mostly the conservatives.

Mrs. Theresa May who succeeded the immediate past Tory party leader Mr. David Cameron as premier after the former voluntarily stepped down when he lost the Brexit votes, had consistently branded Jeremy Corbyn a weak leader who lacks the capacity to lead Great Britain through the thorny negotiations’ process out of the European Union.

This is the exact words of Mr. Tony Blair in that 2010 best seller book: “The election night of May 1 had passed in a riot of celebration, exhilaration and expectation. History was not so much being made as jumping up and down and dancing”.

He continued: “Eighteen years of conservative government had ended. Labour – New Labour –had won by a land slide. It felt as if a fresh era was beginning. As I walked through the iron gates into Downing Street, and as the crowd – carefully assembled, carefully managed – pressed forward in enthusiasm, despite the setting, the managing and the fatigue of being up all night , I could feel the emotion like a charge. It ran not just through the crowd but through the country. It affected everyone, lifting them up, giving them hope, election and the spirit surrounding it, the world could be changed.”(Tony Blair:- The Journey ”).

These prophetic words of Mr. Tony Blair may have come back to haunt him and his likes who had predicted doom for the Labour party under the leadership of Mr. Jeremy Corbyn some weeks before this snap election of June 8. I say this because those exhilaration and excitements that swept him into office have exactly revisited the current leader of the Labour party who contrary to the prophesies of doom, almost overwhelmed the Theresa May -led Conservatives party in the just concluded polls.

Mrs. Theresa May had called for this snap election with the expectation that her party would win absolute majority to be able to exercise good enough mandate to preside over the thorny negotiations that would naturally see Great Britain exit from the European Union in few moths time.

So in the snap election, what happened could be compared to the Biblical injunction that ‘the stone rejected has become the corner stone.’

The Mr. Corbyn-led leadership of Labour party which faced tumultuous internal schism and external threats, performed so well in such a way that the majority in Westminster parliament hitherto held by the conservatives in the British House of Commons shrunk significantly therefore forcing what is called a hung parliament. Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head of Human rights writers Association of Nigeria