Time for Corbyn to show real leadership

An opportunity exists for Labour to show that is a genuine government-in-waiting, but will it take it?

The case that the current UK government is chaotic, divided and lacking in string leadership is, we would suggest, utterly compelling.

Prime Minister Theresa May – a Remainer charged with delivering a Brexit which she believes will damage the UK – leads a party at war with itself. This being so, the official opposition should be making great strides in the polls. Labour should be a government-in-waiting, shooins to win the next General Election.

But despite the bold predictions of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters that he will soon hold the keys to 10 Downing Street, current polling suggests otherwise.

Brexit is the dominant issue in UK politics right now, and it will continue to be for some time. Yet on this most crucial of subjects, Mr Corbyn has been curiously unforthcoming.

Rather than challenging the Prime Minister on the dangers of a “hard Brexit”, Mr Corbyn has stuck to the line that the result of the 2016 referendum stands.

And rather than supporting the ever-increasing number of calls from within his own party for a People’s Vote on the final shape of any Brexit deal, Mr Corbyn has preferred to call for a General Election which, after his inevitable victory, would mean he was in charge of negotiations with the EU. After a political lifetime of Euroscepticism, Mr Corbyn’s insistence that he is now a Remainer rings rather hollow. His actions – or lack thereof – do not suggest any real affection for the European project.

Yet this issue surely provides an opportunity for Mr Corbyn to make a real impact. A People’s Vote is not, despite what some more shrill members of the Leave community might insist, an undemocratic concept. Far from it.

Many Leave supporters complain that any kind of deal with the EU is not what people voted for. As far as they are concerned, Leave meant a No Deal Brexit. Those who hold this view take a lot for granted. In fact, the question asked in 2016 made no reference to breaking all co-operation, only for membership to end.

A People’s Vote on the nature of Brexit is, then, a perfectly sensible suggestion. Mr Corbyn says that he will back a People’s Vote if Labour Party members – currently meeting in Liverpool for their annual conference – wish one to take place.

Perhaps if Jeremy Corbyn could show some real leadership on this most important of issues that stubborn polling might begin to move in his favour.