Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: the meat market vegetarian is like a fish out of water
For a vegetarian, it is an odd hang-out – Meat N16, in one of North London’s most desirable neighbourhoods, has long been the go-to butcher for trendy Islingtonians.
Yet visitors to the meat market on Stoke Newington Church Street are getting surprisingly used to the sight of one among their number. Keen to escape the pressure cooker of the office, Jeremy Corbyn has taken to visiting the millennial-packed tea room next door. A year ago he did not need the extra affirmation. Fresh from stripping Mrs May of her governing majority, he arrived at Labour’s Brighton conference feted as the “real” election winner with even his reluctant deputy Tom Watson joining in chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn”.
Fast forward a year and following what can only be described as an aestas horribilis, it seems the campaigner in Corbyn is growing tired of the more corporate requirements of his role. “Jeremy is constantly being told what he can and can’t say and it’s sometimes difficult for him,” said an insider who revealed that he has been known to give his close advisers Karie Murphy and Seumas Milne the slip so he can hang out with his faithful.
“He says he’s off to his allotment but he’s been spotted outside the butcher’s on Stoke Newington Church Street quite a bit. He just likes to escape the pressure cooker of the office and do the things he used to do before he was leader. He likes having selfies taken with all the Corbynistas.”
An outspoken backbencher for 22 years before his election as leader in 2015, the veteran MP for Islington North understandably doesn’t take kindly to being bossed about, despite the cocoon of his son Seb and staunch allies including Stalin sympathiser Andrew Murray, his daughter Laura and John Prescott’s son David. Yet the tetchiness he has recently displayed in interviews is not reserved just for reporters wanting to know more about THAT wreath laying in Tunisia.
“Jeremy likes to present himself as this avuncular old hippie but he can be extremely prickly,” says an inside source. “He loves the status of the job but not having to answer difficult questions. He’s uncomfortable being challenged. He snaps at staff and MPS just as much as journalists.”
“Brexit is the biggest frustration”, according to another close observer. “Jeremy’s spent his whole political life campaigning to get us out of the EU and now there’s growing pressure to support a second referendum. It’s no wonder the party’s Brexit policy is all over the shop.” Corbyn voted to leave the EEC in the 1975 European Referendum, against the Maastricht treaty in 1993 and against the Lisbon treaty in 2008.
An insider who worked on his bid for the leadership spoke of “constant disagreements” between him and John Mcdonnell, his equally Eurosceptic shadow chancellor and closest political ally: “They were vehemently opposed to the idea of remaining in the single market and the customs union. And now Labour is talking about having a new customs union with the EU. There is a huge gulf between his thinking on Europe and that of his supporters – and certainly the millennials.” His slow reaction to the anti-semitism row that engulfed Labour also caused tension at the top. One Labour MP said: “John is much more tactical than Jeremy and could see the storm brewing. While it’s wrong to suggest a split between the pair, John thinks they should have got a grip on the anti-semitism stuff much sooner. There was a sense that Jeremy underestimated how bad it would be, as he is blinded by his Palestinian sympathies. It’s an obsession for him.”
And now he has to contend with an investigation into his undisclosed trips by the Commons Standards watchdog.
As the crowds descend on the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool tomorrow, “haunted” Corbyn will not want to lose any more momentum.