Donor’s doorstep challenge
IT IS safe to say that Michael Foster is not a Jeremy Corbyn fan.
One of Labour’s largest private donors of recent years, Mr Foster was suspended from the party after penning an inflammatory article in which he compared supporters of Mr Corbyn to Nazi stormtroopers.
Before that, outraged at Mr Corbyn’s failure to mention the word “Israel” at a Labour Friends of Israel event, Mr Foster heckled him.
The 59-year-old promised to run against Mr Corbyn in the Islington North seat the Labour leader has held since 1983 if the party fared poorly in the local elections earlier this month. It did, so he is.
His pitch to voters in this uphill battle — Mr Corbyn’s majority is more than 21,000 — is that he can get young constituents into employment with an effective back-to-work programme.
But how will he convince the electorate this endeavour is not just another chapter in what could look like a personal vendetta against Mr Corbyn?
“Jeremy is a very kind man,” Mr Foster says.
“I absolutely know that from everything I have spoken to people about. Jeremy Corbyn is a very good constituency MP and I respect that.
“But under the economics practised by Jeremy and his colleagues on Islington Council, Islington has fared worse than other boroughs.”
It appears, too, that Mr Foster thinks he can win. A Labour canvasser since 1974 and a former parliamentary candidate in Cornwall, he knows how to campaign.
This can, however, manifest itself in outbursts at his campaign staff, including one on her first day. He has a particular issue about people looking at him when he’s giving instructions.
“Just to be clear, I have never done anything bad to anyone,” he explains. “I have no excuses at all, nor do I offer any, if I step out of line. I apologise, and I hope people understand I am trying to get things done.
“I respect people. I hope I do not walk over people. Some have said to me that I am ‘bullying’ people in order to get things done.”
So how does he fare on the doorstep as an independent?
Not badly, actually. Knocking on doors close to the monolithic Emirates Stadium, he finds more than one disillusioned Labour voter who would consider giving him their backing.
“I like what Jeremy Corbyn’s saying,” says resident Martina Wall-Palmer. “But he won’t be able to make any of the changes he’s promising. I think he’s very principled — but it will never work. I like the way independents think.”