Labour’s Left Wing Senses Chance of a Socialist Prime Minister Emerging From the Wreckage of Brexit
LONDON—The more damaging the fallout from Britain’s clumsy efforts to leave the European Union, the greater the chance that an angry population will sweep the Conservative government from power and embrace a truly radical alternative.
That’s not to say Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s most proudly socialist leader in generations, is seeking to destroy the British economy in order to seize power. It’s just that there’s a sizeable potential upside to that scenario for him. Like the prime minister, he is in the impossible position of trying to hold together his coalition of voters, which stretches from Britain’s pro-Brexit former industrial heartlands to the Europe-worshiping neighborhoods of North London.
So far, Corbyn’s position has been euphemistically described as “constructive ambiguity.” Now that Theresa May’s Brexit compromise deal has gone down to the most cataclysmic defeat in Britain’s long parliamentary history, many of Corbyn’s fellow Labour lawmakers feel the time is right to step in and try to stop Brexit.
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