Labour’s new generation must cut the Corbyn obsession and learn from history – otherwise we’ll always be irrelevant
WHEN Sir Keir Starmer became Labour leader, I thought I’d got my party back – back from the disaster of Corbynism, the infighting, and the bullying. But it is becoming ever more apparent that this dream couldn’t last. As a 16-year-old party member, it has been worrying this week to see prominent members of Young […]
WHEN Sir Keir Starmer became Labour leader, I thought I’d got my party back – back from the disaster of Corbynism, the infighting, and the bullying.
But it is becoming ever more apparent that this dream couldn’t last.
As a 16-year-old party member, it has been worrying this week to see prominent members of Young Labour publically hailing the return of Jeremy Corbyn.
The former leader, we must remember, was suspended just weeks ago after his shameless response to a report which found the party broke the law over anti-Semitism.
Young Labour has a duty to be a welcoming space for Jewish members – and these sentiments do the exact opposite.
It is yet more evidence of the fact that even now, the party’s next generation still idolises Corbynism – refusing to stare cold, hard reality in the face.
Cult of personality
Corbynites have taken every opportunity to undermine Starmer since he came to power in April, even bizarrely blaming him for the disastrous 2019 general election because he has been a vocal Remainer.
But in reality, Corbyn was the reason why Labour lost.
After all, he had a wavering stance on Brexit, made the party unwelcoming to Jewish people, and created a toxic environment in Labour.
Toxic, that is, to anyone who had a different opinion.
It is a huge concern to me how many young people have been taken in by the ‘Corbyn project’ despite such a narrow world view.
Champagne socialists who’ve had a privileged and comfortable upbringing claim they know it all, but understand nothing about the lives of normal working people.
Behind a smug and patronising attitude, they come up with absurd political ‘hot takes’, such as the fashionable insult that Starmer is a “Blairite”.
Yes, Tony Blair is vilified in the Labour Party.
But young members could learn a thing or two from a man who won over thousands of Tory voters and delivered three successful election campaigns.
Jumping back further in history, they could also learn about the mess former leader Neil Kinnock had to clear up in 1983, when Michael Foot’s radical agenda gave Margaret Thatcher a devastating victory.
Corbyn, similarly, is idolised by the young for being an old-fashioned socialist.
He cost the party two elections – the second by a landslide – and has brought Labour to the brink of civil war.
Left behind
I live in a working class area of Yorkshire – a place which felt left behind by Corbyn, like much of the ‘Red Wall’ he shamefully lost to the Conservatives.
During the 2019 election, every single person I spoke to didn’t trust or want him in the party – never mind Downing Street.
His readmission into Labour is sending the wrong message out – especially to the Jewish community, and Northern residents like me.
Starmer is right to take a tough stance by not immediately restoring the whip, but I fear it will do little to win around the Marxists in my party, who would love to see Corbyn back as leader.
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Frankly, they will soon have to decide what the point of the Labour Party is.
Is the objective to win elections and govern?
Or is it to stay loyal to socialism – and stay in opposition forever?