Labour’s descent into the political gutter

THE sight of a snarling, hooded Jeremy Corbyn supporter throwing a punch in a violent university campus confrontation with Jacob Rees-Mogg illustrates how far Labour has descended into the gutter of British politics.

For this young hooligan and his friends in the party’s hard-Left Momentum movement, there is no longer a place for civilised political debate – only hatred. In their eyes, the mere fact that Mr Rees-Mogg is a Tory makes him a racist, a homophobe, and – of course – a Nazi. He must therefore be harassed and howled down.

This is Mr Corbyn’s ‘ kinder, gentler politics’ in action. And Momentum is its ugly face.

It’s not just the Tories these Corbynistas hate. Some of their most poisonous attacks have been on members of their own party.

Haringey council chief Claire Kober describes how Momentum hounded her and other moderates out of office with a sustained campaign of intimidation.

At council meetings, activists taunted her with a rendition of the pop song Every Breath You Take, which is about a man stalking a woman and includes the line: ‘Every step you take, I’ll be watching you.’

The tragedy for millions of traditional Labour supporters is that these extremist bullies have stolen their party. And far from trying to rein them in, the leadership – notably Mr Corbyn and shadow Chancellor John McDonnell – are cheering them on.

This week, Theresa May will announce plans for a crackdown on intimidation in politics and is appealing for support across the Parliamentary spectrum. In a sane world she’d receive it without question.

But from today’s Labour party she can expect only scorn and hypocrisy. The chilling truth is they see intimidation as a legitimate – and highly effective – tactic.