Corbyn is ideal for Britain, say Greece’s ultra-Leftists

Syriza Party, which pushed the country to brink of ruin, throws its weight behind Labour candidate

JEREMY CORBYN’S Labour leadership campaign has received backing from the party that took Greece to the brink of financial collapse.

Leading figures in Greece’s radical Syriza party told The Daily Telegraph that a victory for Mr Corbyn in Labour’s leadership election would be the “best thing to come out of Britain in a long time”.

Mr Corbyn’s shock surge in the contest has caused a split in the party, with MPs warning that his Left-wing views will take Labour “back to the Eighties” and prevent it winning power again for at least 20 years.

The backing of Syriza politicians will intensify Labour concern over the decision to nominate Mr Corbyn.

Costas Lapavitsas, a professor of economics at SOAS university in London and a Syriza MP, said Mr Corbyn would inject “values, beliefs and common sense” into the Labour Party, and strengthen the anti-austerity movement across Europe.

Mr Corbyn opposes government plans for further cuts, and has called for re-nationalisation of Britain’s railways and higher taxes to scrap university tuition fees.

He is currently 17 points ahead of closest rival Andy Burnham, according to a YouGov poll. “If he succeeds – and I hope he does – he’s exactly what Britain could do with; what the Labour Party could do with,” said Mr Lapavitsas.

“I think that would be a very important move for the rest of Europe and for Greece. It would give a boost to the kind of thinking in the rest of Europe that is so sadly lacking at the moment.

“It would be the best thing to come out of Britain for Europe in a long time.”

Mr Lapavitsas, who has met the Islington North MP, said he would be keen to “develop links” with him if he were elected in September.

Mr Corbyn has said that Labour needs to learn from Left-wing parties such as Syriza and Scotland’s SNP.

He said: “I have been in Greece, I have been in Spain. It’s very interesting that social democratic parties that accept the austerity agenda and end up implementing it, end up losing a lot of members and a lot of support. I think we have a chance to do something different here.”

Mr Lapavitsas was one of 31 Syriza MPs who voted against further austerity measures as part of a third bail-out for the cash-strapped nation.

Marina Prentoulis, a member of Syriza London, said Mr Corbyn stood for “democracy, social justice and equality”.

She said: “Mr Corbyn is speaking up for the people in Britain who have been affected by cuts and austerity, vulnerable people. We need to protect these people because in Britain, as in other countries, there were lies and myths about how society can prosper and how necessary the austerity was.”

‘Mr Corbyn is speaking up for the people who have been affected by austerity, vulnerable people’