Failure to relaunch as plan misfires

THE SUCCESS or otherwise of day one of Jeremy Corbyn’s “relaunch” can perhaps best be judged by a single sentence in the speech he delivered yesterday.

“Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle, but I don’t want that to be misinterpreted, nor do we rule it out,” the Labour leader said.

Almost 24 hours earlier, journalists had been briefed that Mr Corbyn would be making clear Labour would not be demanding the continuation of freedom of movement after Brexit.

This followed months of pressure from his own MPs to address the concerns of some of its core supporters and talk about controlling immigration.

Having stubbornly resisted the use of such language, this appeared to be a significant shift.

But Mr Corbyn spent the morning insisting his position had not changed before delivering a speech in which he suggested Labour might support freedom of movement, or might not.

The result – simultaneous criticism from both those supporting and opposing freedom of movement and widespread confusion over Labour’s position.

For those hoping 2017 would herald a dramatic improvement in Labour’s fortunes, this was far from the start to the year they wanted to see.

The looming Copeland byelection, where Labour has a majority of just 2,564, looks increasingly significant.