Tories must capitalise on this portrait of a dangerous Marxist

JEREMY CORBYN’S election as Labour leader ought to have made life easier for the Tories. To begin with, they thought it would. But in the 2017 General Election they found that things were not that simple. Mr Corbyn cost them their majority, with many disastrous results. Complacency exacted a heavy price.

They must not now imagine that they will win the next Election just because Mr Corbyn still seems to them to be a hopeless loser. They won’t win just because they are not Mr Corbyn. Many of the things which old-fashioned loyal Tories see as unacceptable – such as Mr Corbyn’s flirtations with Sinn Fein and Middle Eastern terror groups – are ancient history or minor issues for voters under 35.

For these citizens Mr Corbyn is appealing in a number of ways. He appears to understand the problems of student loans, employment and costly hardto-find housing which beset the young. He seems to be aware that life outside the prosperous South East is tough and getting tougher. He opposed the Iraq War, which still lies like a scar across British politics.

Much of this appeal is false, in reality. Mr Corbyn has no actual answer to the problems of the young, such as zerohours contracts and the high price of housing. He has no miracle economic plan which would change all these things. On the contrary, his Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, is a Marxist who threatens to crash the economy. He was against the Iraq War not because he made an intelligent assessment of it, but because he opposes all wars, except those conducted by revolutionary terrorists. But how can the Tories get this across?

They will be greatly helped by the full story of his undistinguished and unimpressive life, which The Mail on Sunday reveals in new and fascinating detail today. This narrative contains many warnings about Mr Corbyn. His educational mediocrity, hard to excuse in one from such a welloff background, his incurably narrow mind, his chaotic personal life and finances are actually pathetic. His later patchy and undistinguished career, from which he was rescued by professional politics, simply is not the background of a potential Prime Minister. Great men have in the past risen to the top from humble beginnings. But Mr Corbyn (whose start in life was in fact far from humble) is not one of them.

He can just about cope with the demands of town hall politics or backbench intrigue. Big national issues dwarf him. When troubles come to call, he disappears to his allotment, or makes jam, or bathes in the Left-wing warmth of a Cuba Solidarity rally.

Mrs May has indicated that she does not intend to lead the party into the next scheduled Election. So the Conservatives need to ensure that their next leader is serious, well-educated and knowledgeable about the real world of work, properly experienced in life as well as politics, and whose past is not an embarrassment.

It also needs to recognise that Mr Corbyn’s party has identified real discontents and failings in our society, which can in fact be addressed much better by intelligent conservatives than they can by impractical, irresponsible Marxists. If they can’t make this clear, Mr Corbyn will all too soon be making jam in No 10 Downing Street, and Mr McDonnell will be making mischief in No 11.

This outcome is horribly possible. To prevent it, the Tories must properly know their enemy. The Mail on Sunday is happy to help them do so.