Paymaster and lackey: Embrace of the Brothers
IT began with a warm embrace for his hard-Left union paymaster.
It ended with tributes to Tony Benn, fists raised and a rousing rendition of the socialist anthem The Red Flag.
Jeremy Corbyn appeared to have wound the clock back to the Eighties as he celebrated his Labour leadership win with a victory rally at a packed Westminster pub.
Comrades in arms, he and Unite union baron Len McCluskey had broad smiles as they took in the scale of the win at the drinking hole.
And during a speech, Marxist Mr Corbyn was quick to thank the unions who had rallied round his candidacy – and the man who will be one of the main figures in the new regime.
‘Unite have been fantastic,’ he beamed. ‘Not just for letting us invade the office every night with all the volunteers on the phone bank and all the other offices all round the country. Len, thank you very much for that.’
He added: ‘The Labour Party and the unions have got to remain linked for ever.’ Despite being a teetotaller, the newly-crowned party leader headed to a pub with hundreds of jubilant supporters. The victors were crammed in to the Sanctuary House near St James Park, just yards from the Westminster conference hall where Mr Corbyn was elected.
Many were young idealists, dressed in red T-shirts, swept up by their leader’s ‘inspirational’ anti-cuts programme. As Mr Corbyn apologised to an American family for disturbing their peaceful pub lunch the room erupted in chants of ‘USA, USA’ – possibly a first for one of his rallies.
After a dig at business – ‘We received, asked for and got no corporate donations whatsoever’ there was also a barbed reference to ‘royalty’. ‘We understand how our liberties were won, how our health service was gained, how our council housing was developed – it wasn’t handed down by the rich and powerful and royalty and others,’ he said. ‘It came from the demands or ordinary people.’
Mr Corbyn later held up a tea towel depicting his hero Tony Benn, and joined in as the words of The Red Flag were belted out – drifting across Westminster for the first time in decades.
John McDonnell, manager of the Corbyn campaign, said the earth had ‘moved’ when the result had been announced. ‘I just wish Tony Benn had been here to see this,’ he added.