By friendly fire
other’s homes and known each other for a long time. So that was a bit of a shock.”
Freedland said that Corbyn’s statement on camera allowed him to become a “lightning rod for Corbynite rage at the mainstream media”.
“[The] truth about Corbyn is he very rarely speaks negatively about anyone... he never really attacks Theresa May or Boris Johnson.
“One of the only people he’s ever been actually negative about... was me.
“And so therefore that did sort of paint a sign on my back where people thought, Saint Jeremy has allowed us to slag off this guy.”
Freedland said the article Corbyn was reacting to when he made his comment didn’t accuse the Labour leader himself of being anti-Semitic, but instead pointed out former associates of his had questionable views, and that the his reaction showed his problem with the media.
Freedland spoke about the incident for the first time on podcast Corbynism: The Post-Mortem, hosted by journalist Oz Katerji, which dissects last month’s Labour election defeat.
Milne was approached for comment.
⬤ POLLSTER John Curtice has a stark warning for the Tories. “If you look at the age profile of the Conservative vote,” he told the Fabian conference over the weekend, “unless that age profile is changed, the Conservatives are going to be in deep electoral trouble by 2030.”
⬤ NEWS that Jeremy Corbyn’s former chief of staff Karie Murphy will receive a life peerage will be no surprise to readers of The Londoner — it was predicted on these pages two weeks ago.