GLASTO’S LABOUR LOVE-IN
Corbyn & Co to cynically hijack the crowd (with a little help from the BBC)
GLASTONBURY and the BBC were accused of ‘Left-wing bias’ and ‘hero-worshipping’ Jeremy Corbyn ahead of his speech at the festival today.
It is the first time a leader of the opposition has spoken on one of its stages.
Mr Corbyn will address tens of thousands of music fans from the festival’s Pyramid Stage this afternoon before introducing hip-hop act Run The Jewels.
The prospect of his appearance on the main stage of Britain’s biggest music festival, attended by 200,000 each year, was yesterday described as ‘brilliant’ by a BBC presenter.
Gemma Cairney, 32, a reporter covering the festival for BBC Radio 6 Music, said the Labour leader’s visit was generating ‘a lot of excitement’. She told Radio 4’s Today: ‘I think it’s going to be brilliant … He might stay on and maybe whop out a few rap lyrics.’
Critics accused the BBC, which airs live coverage of the festival, of doing ‘everything they can to get their hero Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street’. Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: ‘The BBC is riddled with Left-wing bias from the Today programme downwards.
‘They will seize any opportunity to get Theresa May out. Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury is a typical example of their behaviour … the BBC is out of control.’
Andrew Bridgen, another Tory MP, added: ‘The BBC will do everything they can to get their hero Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. Now with things like this year’s Glastonbury, it’s becoming ever more blatant.
‘They are at the stage where if the BBC give it one more push, we will end up with a Marxist in No 10.’
James Heappey, Tory MP for Wells which includes the festival site, criticised Mr Corbyn for missing an armed forces day parade in Liverpool, saying he was ‘politicking on the Pyramid Stage ahead of his responsibilities as head of Her Majesty’s Opposition’.
He accused him of breaching parliamentary protocol, which states MPs should write to other MPs if they are due to undertake official events in their constituencies.
This year’s festival has seen an invasion of Labour top brass as the party looks to capitalise on Mr Corbyn’s popularity with young voters. Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper looked less than happy as they queued for the showers yesterday morning – and
‘Riddled with Left-wing bias’ ... and here’s how he was fawned over in Brighton yesterday
deputy leader Tom Watson was seen striding through the crowds in a cap and baggy denim trousers.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will address the festival tomorrow, in a discussion titled ‘ Is Democracy Broken?’
Ahead of the Labour leader’s speech at 4.15pm today, chants of ‘oh Jeremy Corbyn’, sung to the tune of White Stripes song Seven Nation Army, have been ringing out across the site.
Festival founder Michael Eavis, 81, told the Guardian: ‘I’m so looking forward to it. He really is the hero of the hour, and he’s so refreshing. We’re going to make some major changes in our society.’
Glastonbury has long been associated with Left-wing activism, with links to Greenpeace and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.