Jeremy Corbyn addressed large crowds in the Nottinghamshire seat of Broxtowe on Saturday – now occupied by former-Tory ‘quitter’ MP Anna Soubry. ‘Mainstream’ journalists didn’t like it.
Recently-Tory Anna Soubry’s voting record on the her former party’s cuts and targeting of vulnerable people has not gone away because she has jumped ship to join the new ‘Tinge group’ of MPs. Nor have her politics moved noticeably – since her departure she has spoken approvingly of the austerity inflicted on the UK’s poorest since the Tories took Downing Street.
So Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to campaign in the tight marginal seat in Nottinghamshire made perfect sense, both as a statement of intent that Labour is in the business of getting into government – Soubry won Broxtowe in 2017 by fewer than 900 votes – and as a very clear message to the ‘quitter’ group.
According to research published last week, there is very little appetite for a the new ‘Thatcher-lite’, so-called ‘centrist’ option in UK politics. But it seems the one group that does pine for ‘more of the same’ is ‘mainstream’ journalists – at least judging by the howls of outrage from them.
A number of journalists couldn’t contain their anger at Corbyn’s impertinence in daring to park his tanks on Soubry’s and TINGE’s lawn, including the Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr, who should know better – and subsequently deleted her tweet:
The Guardian’s Sonia Sodha – who happens to be on the advisory board of quitter Chuka Umunna’s think-tank – was another:
Of course, focusing on an ex-Tory in a narrowly Tory seat makes perfect sense – for a party that intends to win the marginals it needs in order to govern. But such logic didn’t seem to occur to many Establishment types.
Emily Thornberry gets it, though – and told the cheering crowd that the 2017 surge in Labour votes in quitter seats had nothing to do with individual incumbents and everything to do with Labour as an electoral force under its new leadership and policies:
The people of Broxtowe get it, too. While Corbyn was talking to a large crowd there, it seems Anna Soubry was talking to next to nobody at her so-called ‘rally’ for another referendum – referred to so glowingly by Sky’s Beth Rigby above -in neighbouring Nottingham. Even if you take passing shoppers into account:
Jeremy Corbyn’s full speech is available on YouTube and reflected the passion and confidence of a leader who knows his party has this week lost hindrances to it its mission of governing for the sake of the many:
But it was by no means all about Labour’s parliamentary front-benchers. Labour supporters in Broxtowe understand the mission and are ready to do what it takes, such as this group of two mothers and their daughters – all of whom are standing as candidates in the local elections:
SKWAWKBOX comment:
‘Peak centrist’ has often seemed to be reached, only for a new peak to reveal itself – but it’s hard to imagine anything more revealing than ‘mainstream’ journalists and commentators outraged by the idea that the Labour leader and his team should get to work to overthrow a candidate who has a long record of contributing to the damage this country’s vulnerable people have suffered for far too long.
Divided Tories or cardboard candidates who are in seats because of a Labour rosette they no longer want to wear and the hard work of supporters they now treat with contempt – all are fair game, in fact Labour has a duty and an obligation to the people to wipe the quitters off the electoral map. And there’s no time like the present to get started.
Broxtowe showed that voters get that, even if the small but well amplified centrist cult do not – and the latter’s outrage only shows how desperately out of touch they are.
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