Corbyn has led the Labour Party to the brink of collapse
TWO years ago Jeremy Corbyn pulled off a sensational result in the general election. Defying all predictions, he presided over the biggest surge for the official Opposition since 1945.
But it has been all downhill for the Labour leader since then. The euphoria of 2017 has given way to the encircling gloom of chaos, as his party is engulfed by incendiary rows over extremism, bitter accusations of anti-Semitism and acrimonious divisions over Brexit.
Corbyn once promised a “kinder, gentler politics”. But he has achieved the opposite. Labour has become a party injected with the lethal poison of intimidation and bigotry.
As a result, support is haemorrhaging. The nadir was reached last week when an opinion poll put Labour on just 18 per cent, its lowest ever rating. That survey comes in the wake of disastrous local and European election results in May, as well as a loss of more than 100,000 members in the last year.
Tellingly there were no chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” at Glastonbury this summer, in contrast to the scenes of adulation in 2017. Even his most loyal allies in the Shadow Cabinet, such as John McDonnell and Diane Abbott, have become disillusioned with his failing leadership.
The sulphurous air at Westminster is now full of talk about a challenge to Corbyn’s embattled regime.
DEPUTY leader Tom Watson, a shrewd political operator who has long distanced himself from Corbyn, is said to be willing to mount a bid if no one else comes forward.
Amid this increased pressure, much of the anger of Labour MPs is directed at Corbyn’s office, seen as an engine of division, dogma and dysfunctionality.
“Among those surrounding him are a number of people who would appear totally detached from reality. They live in their own revolutionary world,” says the Barking MP Dame Margaret Hodge.
Hostility focuses on two particular aides. One is his Chief of Staff Karie Murphy, a Glaswegian publican’s daughter and former trade union official who has been described as “utterly ferocious”.
The other is Seamus Milne, Corbyn’s director of strategy. The public school-educated son of a BBC Director-General, Milne mixes privileged entitlement with hard-Left ideology.
There is now a concerted plot to oust these two acolytes. Even Corbyn is reportedly resigned to their departure. Further ammunition in the case against them will come on Wednesday when BBC Panorama broadcasts an investigation into Labour’s anti-Semitism scandal, with explosive revelations about how senior figures thwarted tough action against alleged prejudice and abuse by Corbyn supporters
Anti-Semitism is just one element in the long catalogue of failings by the Labour leadership.
BUT even if Milne and Murphy are forced out, it is not inevitable that Corbyn’s own downfall will swiftly follow.We have heard all this talk of a coup before, and nothing happens.
In 2016, more than threequarters of Labour MPs expressed no confidence in him, yet allowed him to remain in office. Part of this is down to institutional tribalism and sentimentality, which explains why Labour has an appalling record in removing dud leaders.
And too many moderates fear they will wreck their political careers or face deselection if they move against Corbyn. Nor will their resolve have been strengthened by the example of Change UK, the breakaway group of disaffected MPs which has sunk without a trace.
Even if there is a leadership challenge, Corbyn might win, given that the hard-Left maintains a tight grip on the diminished Labour membership. Indeed, those who are most likely to have abandoned the party recently are moderates.
The truth is that the Corbynista zealots will not give up without a fight.They are like a Stalinist cabal, interested only in power. They know that Corbyn’s leadership probably represents the only historic chance for revolutionary socialism to take control in Britain – and they are determined not to miss this opportunity.