Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (/ˈkɔːrbɪn/; born 26 May 1949)[3] is a British politician serving as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition since 2015. Corbyn has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North since 1983.[4] Ideologically, he identifies as a democratic socialist.[5]
Born in Chippenham and raised in both Wiltshire and Shropshire, Corbyn joined Labour as a teenager. Moving to London, he became a trade union representative. In 1974, he was elected to Haringey Council and became Secretary of Hornsey Constituency Labour Party, until elected as the MP for Islington North in 1983. His activism has included roles in Anti-Fascist Action, the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and advocating for a united Ireland. As a backbench MP, he frequently voted against the Labour whip, including New Labour governments under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. A vocal opponent of the Iraq War, he chaired the Stop the War Coalition from 2011 to 2015. Corbyn received the Gandhi International Peace Award in 2013 and the Seán MacBride Peace Prize in 2017.
Corbyn was elected Labour leader in 2015. The party's membership increased sharply, both during the leadership campaign and following his election.[6] Taking the party to the left, he advocated renationalisation of public utilities and the railways, a less interventionist military policy, and reversals of austerity cuts to welfare and public services. Although critical of the European Union, he supported continued membership in the 2016 referendum. After Labour MPs sought to remove him in 2016, he won a second leadership contest. In the 2017 general election, Labour increased its share of the vote to 40%, with Labour's 9.6% vote swing being its largest since the 1945 general election. Under Corbyn, Labour achieved a net gain of 30 seats and a hung parliament, but the party remained in Opposition.
In 2019, Corbyn endorsed holding a referendum on any Brexit withdrawal agreement, with a personal stance of neutrality. In the 2019 general election, Labour's vote share fell to 32%, its lowest since 2015, leading to a net loss of 60 seats and leaving it with 202, its fewest since 1935. Corbyn said that he would not lead Labour into the next election, triggering a leadership election. According to a number of studies, media coverage of Corbyn has often been hostile. He has condemned antisemitism but has been criticised for his past associations and responses to allegations of antisemitism within the Labour Party.
Corbyn was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and lived until the age of seven in the nearby village of Kington St Michael.[7] He is the youngest of the four sons of Naomi Loveday (née Josling; 1915–1987), a maths teacher, and David Benjamin Corbyn (1915–1986), an electrical engineer and expert in power rectifiers. His brother Piers Corbyn is a physicist, meteorologist and weather forecaster.[8][9][10] His parents were Labour Party members[11] and peace campaigners who met in the 1930s at a committee meeting in support of the Spanish Republic at Conway Hall during the Spanish Civil War.[12][13][14]
When Corbyn was seven, the family moved to Pave Lane in Shropshire, where his father bought Yew Tree Manor, a 17th-century country house which was once part of the Duke of Sutherland's Lilleshall estate.[15][7][16] Corbyn attended Castle House School, an independent preparatory school near Newport, Shropshire, before, at age 11, becoming a day student at the Adams' Grammar School in the town.[17][18]
While still at school, he became active in The Wrekin constituency Young Socialists, his local Labour Party, and the League Against Cruel Sports.[18] He joined the Labour Party at age 16[11] and achieved two A-Levels, at grade E, the lowest-possible passing grade, before leaving school at 18.[19][20] Corbyn joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1966 whilst at school[21] and later became one of its three vice-chairs and subsequently vice-president.[22] Around this time, he also campaigned against the Vietnam War.[23]
After school,[24] Corbyn worked briefly as a reporter for a local newspaper, the Newport and Market Drayton Advertiser.[25] At around the age of 19 he spent two years doing Voluntary Service Overseas in Jamaica as a youth worker and geography teacher.[26][27] He subsequently travelled through Latin America in 1969 and 1970, visiting Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Whilst in Brazil he participated in a student demonstration in São Paulo against the Brazilian military government. He also attended a May Day march in Santiago, where the atmosphere around Salvador Allende's Popular Unity alliance which swept to power in the Chilean elections of 1970 made an impression on him: "[I] noticed something very different from anything I had experienced... What Popular Unity and Allende had done was weld together the folk tradition, the song tradition, the artistic tradition and the intellectual tradition".[28][29]
Early career and political activities
Returning to the UK in 1971, he worked as an official for the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers.[30] Corbyn began a course in Trade Union Studies at North London Polytechnic but left after a year without a degree after a series of arguments with his tutors over the curriculum.[31] He worked as a trade union organiser for the National Union of Public Employees and Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union,[17][32] where his union was approached by Tony Benn and "encouraged ... to produce a blueprint for workers' control of British Leyland"; the plans did not proceed after Benn was moved to a different Department.[33]
He was appointed a member of a district health authority and in early 1974, at the age of 24, he was elected to Haringey Council in South Hornsey ward.[34] After boundary changes in 1978 he was re-elected in Harringay ward as councillor, remaining so until 1983.[12][35] As a delegate from Hornsey to the Labour Party conference in 1978, Corbyn successfully moved a motion calling for dentists to be employed by the NHS rather than private contractors.[36] He also spoke in another debate, describing a motion calling for greater support for law and order as "more appropriate to the National Front than to the Labour Party".[37]
Corbyn became the local Labour Party's agent and organiser,[38] and had responsibility for the 1979 general election campaign in Hornsey.[17]
Around this time, he became involved with the London Labour Briefing, where he was a contributor. Described by The Times in 1981 as "Briefing's founder",[39] The Economist in a 1982 article named Corbyn as "Briefing's general secretary figure",[40] as did a profile on Corbyn compiled by parliamentary biographer Andrew Roth in 2004,[41][42] which asserts that he joined the editorial board as General Secretary in 1979.[17] Michael Crick in his 2016 edition of Militant says Corbyn was "a member of the editorial board",[43] as does Lansley, Goss and Wolmar's 1989 work, The Rise and Fall of the Municipal Left.[44] Corbyn said these reports were inaccurate in 2017, telling Sophy Ridge "I read the magazine. I wrote for the magazine. I was not a member of the editorial board. I didn't agree with it."[41][42]
He worked on Tony Benn's unsuccessful deputy leadership campaign in 1981. He was keen to allow former International Marxist Group member Tariq Ali to join the party, despite Labour's National Executive having declared him unacceptable, and declared that "so far as we are concerned ... he's a member of the party and he'll be issued with a card."[45] In May 1982, when Corbyn was chairman of the Constituency Labour Party, Ali was given a party card signed by Corbyn;[46] in November the local party voted by 17 to 14 to insist on Ali's membership "up to and including the point of disbandment of the party".[47]
In the July 1982 edition of Briefing, Corbyn opposed expulsions of the Trotskyist and entryist group Militant, saying that "If expulsions are in order for Militant, they should apply to us too." In the same year, he was the "provisional convener" of "Defeat the Witch-Hunt Campaign", based at Corbyn's then address.[48] The Metropolitan Police's Special Branch monitored Corbyn for two decades, until the early 2000s, as he was "deemed to be a subversive". According to the Labour Party, "The Security Services kept files on many peace and Labour movement campaigners at the time, including anti-Apartheid activists and trade unionists".[49]
Parliamentary backbencher (1983–2015)
Labour in opposition (1983–1997)
Corbyn was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the constituency of Islington North, in February 1982,[21][50] winning the final ballot for selection by 39 votes against 35 for GLC councillor Paul Boateng, who in 1987 became one of the first three Black British MPs.[17] At the 1983 general election he was elected member of Parliament for the constituency,[21] defeating the Independent Labour incumbent Michael O'Halloran, and immediately joined the socialist Campaign Group, later becoming secretary of the group.[51][52] Shortly after being elected to Parliament, he began writing a weekly column for the left-wing Morning Star newspaper.[53] In May 2015, he said that "the Star is the most precious and only voice we have in the daily media".[54] In February 2017, the Morning Star said of Corbyn: "He has been bullied, betrayed and ridiculed, and yet he carries on with the same grace and care he always shows to others – however objectionable their behaviour and treatment of him might be."[55]
In 1983, Corbyn spoke on a "no socialism without gay liberation" platform and continued to campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.[56]
He was a campaigner against apartheid in South Africa, serving on the National Executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement,[57] and was arrested in 1984 while demonstrating outside South Africa House, leading, decades later, to a viral image of Corbyn being arrested circulated by supporters on social media.[58][59] This was as a member of the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group (CLAAG) who carried out a "non-stop picket" for 1,408 days to campaign for Nelson Mandela's release from prison. The Anti-Apartheid Movement did not support this protest, as they had agreed not to demonstrate within 30 feet of the embassy, and the picket failed to gain support from the London ANC; Mandela's failure to respond to CLAAG following his release from prison in 1990 is frequently described as a 'snub'.[60][61]
He supported the 1984–85 miners' strike.[62] In 1985, he invited striking miners into House of Commons gallery who were then expelled for shouting: "Coal not dole".[56] Corbyn was given a medallion at the end of the strike by the miners in recognition of his help.[62]
In 1985, he was appointed national secretary of the newly launched Anti-Fascist Action.[63]
During the BBC's Newsnight in 1984, Conservative MP Terry Dicks asserted that so-called Labour scruffs (such as Corbyn, who at this time was known for wearing an old polo-necked sweater to the Commons[64]) should be banned from addressing the House of Commons unless they maintained higher standards. Corbyn responded, saying that: "It's not a fashion parade, it's not a gentleman's club, it's not a bankers' institute, it's a place where the people are represented."[65]
Irish politics
A longstanding supporter of a united Ireland, in the 1980s Corbyn met Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a number of times.[66] "Corbyn consistently said he maintained links with Sinn Fein to work for a resolution to the armed conflict".[66] ccording to The Sunday Times, Corbyn was involved in over 72 events connected with Sinn Féin or other pro-republican groups during the period of the IRA's paramilitary campaign.[67] The British government maintained contact secretly with the IRA leadership for much of this period, too.[66]
Corbyn met Adams at the 1983 and 1989 Labour conferences (facilitated by pro-IRA group Red Action)[68] and in 1983 at Westminster, along with a number of other Labour MPs.[69] In 1984, Corbyn and Ken Livingstone invited Adams, two convicted IRA volunteers and other members of Sinn Féin to Westminster.[66]
During the 1980s, he campaigned on behalf of the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, who were wrongly convicted of responsibility for IRA bombings in England in the mid-70s.[70][71][72][73][74] In 1986, Corbyn was arrested with 15 demonstrators protesting against what they saw as weak evidence and poor treatment during the trial of a group of IRA members including Patrick Magee, who was convicted of the Brighton hotel bombing and other attacks. After refusing police requests to move from outside the court, Corbyn and the other protesters were arrested for obstruction and held for five hours before being released on bail, but were not charged.[75]
Following the 1987 Loughgall ambush, in which eight IRA members and one civilian were shot dead by the British Army in a pre-planned ambush of an IRA attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary base, Corbyn attended a commemoration by the Wolfe Tone Society and stated "I'm happy to commemorate all those who died fighting for an independent Ireland."[76][77] Corbyn has said that he had attended the event and a minute of silence to “call for a peace and dialogue process”.[78]
He voted against the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, saying "We believe that the agreement strengthens rather than weakens the border between the six and the 26 counties, and those of us who wish to see a United Ireland oppose the agreement for that reason."[79]
In the early 1990s, MI5 opened a temporary file on Corbyn to monitor his links to the IRA.[80][81][82]
In 1994, Corbyn signed a Commons motion condemning the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, which killed 21 people.[78]
The meeting took place three weeks after the IRA's bombing of the Conservative Party leadership that killed five people.[83][84] A short time after IRA plans to bomb London were foiled in 1996, Corbyn invited Adams to the House of Commons for a press conference to promote Adams' autobiography, Before the Dawn. Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam and Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the invitation, with Mowlam arguing that it was detrimental to the peace process, and Blair threatening disciplinary action.[85] Adams cancelled the event, to save further embarrassment to Corbyn and to avoid negative publicity.[86]
In 1998, he supported and voted for the Good Friday Agreement, saying he looked forward to "peace, hope and reconciliation in Ireland in the future."[66]
In 2017, Corbyn said that he had "never met the IRA", although Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott later clarified that although he had met members of the IRA, "he met with them in their capacity as activists in Sinn Fein".[87][88]
Israeli embassy bombers
Corbyn supported the campaign to overturn the convictions of Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami for the 1994 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in London arguing that there was insufficient evidence to tie them to the act; Botmeh and Alami had admitted possessing explosives and guns but denied they were for use in Britain. Corbyn signed five early day motions in support of their case between 2002 and 2006, raising issues of public interest and calling for their parole. The convictions were upheld by the High Court of Justice in 2001 and by the European Court of Human Rights in 2007.[89][90]
Poll tax protests and select committee membership
In 1990, Corbyn opposed the poll tax (formally known as the Community Charge)[91] and nearly went to jail for not paying the tax.[58] He appeared in court the following year as a result.[92]
Corbyn sat on the Social Security Select Committee from 1992 to 1997, the London Regional Select Committee from 2009 to 2010, and the Justice Select Committee from 2010 to 2015.[93]
Labour in government (1997–2010)
Between 1997 and 2010, during the most recent Labour Government, Corbyn was the Labour MP who voted most often against the party whip, including three-line whip votes. In 2005 he was identified as the second most rebellious Labour MP of all time when the party was in government.[94] He was the most rebellious Labour MP in the 1997–2001 Parliament,[95] the 2001–2005 Parliament[96] and the 2005–2010 Parliament, defying the whip 428 times while Labour was in power.[97] Jacobin described him as "a figure who for decades challenged them [Labour Party elites] from the backbench as one of the most rebellious left-wing members of parliament."[98]
Stop the War Coalition and anti-war activism
In October 2001, Corbyn was elected to the steering committee of the Stop the War Coalition, which was formed to oppose the Afghanistan War which started later that year. In 2002, Corbyn reported unrest : "there is disquiet...about issues of foreign policy" among some members of the Labour party. He cited "the deployment of troops to Afghanistan and the threat of bombing Iraq" as examples.[99] He was vehemently opposed to the Iraq War in 2003, and spoke at dozens of anti-war rallies in Britain and overseas. He spoke at the February anti-Iraq War protest which was said to be the largest such protest in British political history.[100] In 2006, Corbyn was one of 12 Labour MPs to support Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for a parliamentary inquiry into the Iraq War.[101] He was elected chair of the coalition in succession to Andrew Murray in September 2011, but resigned once he became leader of the Labour Party in September 2015.[102]
Parliamentary groups and activism
Corbyn is a member of a number of Parliamentary Trade Union Groups: he is sponsored by several trade unions, including UNISON, Unite and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. He is a supporter of the Unite Against Fascism pressure group. Corbyn was chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Chagos Islands, chair of the APPG on Mexico, Vice-Chair of the APPG on Latin America and vice-chair of the APPG on Human Rights. He has advocated for the rights of the forcibly-removed Chagossians to return to the British Indian Ocean Territory
Corbyn appeared on a call-in show on Press TV, an Iranian government television channel, several times between 2009 and 2012. He was criticised for appearing on the channel in light of Iran executing and imprisoning homosexuals, as well as Corbyn not questioning contributors who called the BBC "Zionist liars" and described Israel as a "disease".[104][105] Corbyn said in response that he used the programme to address "human rights issues" and that his appearance fee was "not an enormous amount" and was used to help meet constituency office costs.[106][104][105] Corbyn's final appearance was six months after the network was fined by Ofcom for its part in filming an interview with Maziar Bahari, an Iranian journalist, saying the interview had been held under duress and after torture.[106] Ofcom ruled in November 2010 that Corbyn did not show due impartiality when he appeared on Press TV as a guest presenter on George Galloway’s weekly show.[107]
Labour in opposition (2010–2015)
In the 2010 Labour Party leadership election, Corbyn supported Diane Abbott in the first round in which she was eliminated; thereafter, he supported Ed Miliband.[108]
Corbyn was one of 16 signatories to an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling for Labour to make a commitment to opposing further austerity, to take rail franchises back into public ownership, and to strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.[109][110]
Before becoming party leader Corbyn had been returned as member of Parliament for Islington North seven times, gaining 60.24% of the vote and a majority of 21,194 in the 2015 general election.[111]
Leadership of the Labour Party (2015–present)
Following the Labour Party's defeat at the general election on 7 May 2015, Ed Miliband resigned as its party leader, triggering a leadership election. Corbyn decided to stand as a candidate, having been disillusioned by the lack of a left-wing voice, and said to his local newspaper, The Islington Tribune, that he would have a "clear anti-austerity platform". He also said he would vote to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system and would "seek to withdraw from Nato". He suggested that Britain should establish a national investment bank to boost house-building and improve economic growth and lift wages in areas that had less investment in infrastructure. He would also aim to eliminate the current budget deficit over time and restore the 50p top rate of income tax.[112] He added: "This decision is in response to an overwhelming call by Labour Party members who want to see a broader range of candidates and a thorough debate about the future of the party. I am standing to give Labour Party members a voice in this debate".[113] He indicated that, if he were elected, policies that he put forward would need to be approved by party members before being adopted and that he wanted to "implement the democratic will of our party".[114] The other candidates were Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham and Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall.[115][116] Several who nominated Corbyn later said they had ensured he had enough votes to stand, more to widen the political debate within the party than because of a desire or expectation that he would win.[117][118] Nonetheless, he rapidly became the frontrunner among the candidates. He benefited from a large influx of new members as well as new affiliated and registered supporters introduced under Miliband.[119] He was elected leader with 60% of the vote and membership numbers continued to climb after the start of Corbyn's leadership.[6]
At the Second Reading of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill in July 2015, Corbyn joined 47 Labour MPs to oppose the Bill, describing it as "rotten and indefensible", whilst the other three leadership candidates abstained under direction from interim leader Harriet Harman.[120] In August 2015, he called on Iain Duncan Smith to resign as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions after it was reported that thousands of disabled people had died after being found fit to work by Work Capability Assessments (instituted in 2008) between 2011 and 2014, although this was challenged by the government and by FullFact who said that the figure included those who had died and therefore their claim had ended, rather than being found fit for work.[121][122]
Following a rule change under Miliband, members of the public who supported Labour's aims and values could join the party as "registered supporters" for £3 and be entitled to vote in the election.[123] There was speculation the rule change would lead to Corbyn being elected by registered supporters without majority support from ordinary members.[124] Corbyn was elected party leader in a landslide victory on 12 September 2015 with 59.5% of first-preference votes in the first round of voting.[125] Corbyn would have won in the first round with 51% of votes, even without "£3 registered supporters", having gained the support of 49.6% of full members and 57.6% of affiliated supporters.[124][126] Corbyn's 40.5% majority was a larger proportional majority than that attained by Tony Blair in 1994.[127][128] His margin of victory was said to be "the largest mandate ever won by a party leader".[129]
First term as Leader of the Opposition (2015–2017)
After being elected leader, Corbyn became Leader of the Official Opposition and shortly thereafter his appointment to the Privy Council was announced.[130][131] In Corbyn's first Prime Minister's Questions session as leader, he broke with the traditional format by asking the Prime Minister six questions he had received from members of the public, the result of his invitation to Labour Party members to send suggestions, for which he received around 40,000 emails.[132] Corbyn stressed his desire to reduce the "theatrical" nature of the House of Commons, and his début was described in a Guardian editorial as "a good start" and a "long overdue" change to the tone of PMQs.[133] He delivered his first Labour Annual Conference address as leader on 29 September 2015.[134] Party membership nearly doubled between the May 2015 election and October 2015, attributed largely to the election as leader of Corbyn.[6]
In September 2015 an unnamed senior serving general in the British Army stated that a mutiny by the Army could occur if a future Corbyn government moved to scrap Trident, pull out of Nato or reduce the size of the armed forces. The general said "the Army just wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that. You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security".[135]
In July 2016, a study and analysis by academics from the London School of Economics of months of eight national newspaper articles about Corbyn in the first months of his leadership of Labour showed that 75% of them either distorted or failed to represent his actual views on subjects.[136][137]
First Shadow Cabinet and other appointments
Main article: Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn
On 13 September 2015, Corbyn unveiled his Shadow Cabinet. He appointed his leadership campaign manager and long-standing political ally John McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor, leadership opponent Andy Burnham as Shadow Home Secretary, and Angela Eagle as Shadow First Secretary of State to deputise for him in the House of Commons. Corbyn promoted a number of female backbench MPs to Shadow Cabinet roles, including Diane Abbott, Heidi Alexander and Lisa Nandy, making his the first Shadow Cabinet with more women than men, although the most senior roles went to men.[138] In October 2015, Corbyn appointed the Guardian journalist Seumas Milne as the Labour Party's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications.[139]
Military intervention in Syria
After members of Islamic State carried out terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, Corbyn agreed with David Cameron that a political settlement between the Syrian Government and the rebels should be aimed at resolving the Syrian Civil War.[140] Prime Minister David Cameron sought to build political consensus for UK military intervention against IS targets in Syria in the days after the attacks. Corbyn warned against "external intervention" in Syria but told delegates that Labour would "consider the proposals the Government brings forward".[141][142]
After Cameron set out his case for military intervention to Parliament,[143] Corbyn held a Shadow Cabinet meeting, in which he said he would continue with efforts "to reach a common view" on Syria, while Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn suggested the case for air strikes was "compelling".[144] Corbyn sent a letter to Labour MPs saying that he could not support military action against Islamic State: "The issue [is] whether what the Prime Minister is proposing strengthens, or undermines, our national security...I do not believe the current proposal for air strikes in Syria will protect our security and therefore cannot support it."[143] Amid widespread reports of division in the Parliamentary Labour Party, Corbyn insisted that the final decision on whether the Labour Party would oppose air strikes rested with him.[145] Corbyn eventually agreed that Labour MPs would be given a free vote on air strikes when the issue was voted on. 66 Labour MPs voted for the Syrian air strikes, including Hilary Benn and Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson, while Corbyn and the majority of Labour MPs voted against.[146][147]
January 2016 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle
There was widespread speculation following the vote that Corbyn would reshuffle his Shadow Cabinet to remove Hilary Benn, but Corbyn's January reshuffle retained Benn in the same position.[148] The reshuffle prompted the resignations of three junior shadow ministers who were unhappy that Corbyn had sacked or moved shadow ministers who disagreed with his position on Syria and Trident.[149]
On 6 January 2016, Corbyn replaced Shadow Culture Secretary Michael Dugher with Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle (who was in turn replaced by Shadow Employment Minister Emily Thornberry).[150] Thornberry, unlike Maria Eagle, is an opponent of nuclear weapons and British involvement in Syria. Corbyn also replaced Shadow Europe Minister (not attending Shadow Cabinet) Pat McFadden with Pat Glass.[150] On 11 January 2016, Shadow Attorney General Catherine McKinnell resigned, citing party infighting, family reasons and the ability to speak in Parliament beyond her legal portfolio. She was replaced by Karl Turner.[151]
May 2016 local elections
In the 2016 local elections, Labour had a net loss of 18 local council seats and controlled as many councils as before (gaining control of Bristol but losing Dudley). There were also Westminster by-elections in two Labour safe seats, which Labour retained: Ogmore and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. The BBC's Projected National Vote Share was 31% for Labour, 30% for the Conservatives, 15% for the Liberal Democrats and 12% for UKIP.[152] Labour candidate Sadiq Khan won the London mayorship from the Conservatives. Labour's misfortunes in Scotland continued, where they fell into third place behind the Conservatives.[153][154] They retained government in Wales whilst suffering some small losses.[155]
EU referendum
Following the June 2016 vote to leave the EU, Corbyn was accused of "lukewarm" campaigning for Britain to stay in the European Union and showing a "lack of leadership" on the issue by several party figures.[156][157] Alan Johnson, who headed up the Labour In for Britain campaign said "at times" it felt as if Corbyn's office was "working against the rest of the party and had conflicting objectives". Corbyn's decision to go on holiday during the campaign was criticised.[158] In September 2016, Corbyn's spokesman said Corbyn wanted access to the European Single Market, but there were "aspects" of EU membership related to privatisation "which Jeremy campaigned against in the referendum campaign."[159][160]
Shadow Cabinet resignations and vote of no confidence
Three days after the EU referendum, Hilary Benn was sacked after it was disclosed that he had been organising a mass resignation of Shadow Cabinet members to force Corbyn to stand down.[161][162] Several other Cabinet members resigned in solidarity with Benn and by 27 June 23 of the 31 Shadow Cabinet members had resigned their roles as did seven parliamentary private secretaries. Earlier Corbyn announced changes to his Shadow Cabinet, moving Emily Thornberry (to Shadow Foreign Secretary), Diane Abbott (to Shadow Health Secretary), and appointing Pat Glass, Andy McDonald, Clive Lewis, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Kate Osamor, Rachael Maskell, Cat Smith and Dave Anderson to his Shadow Cabinet. Just two days later one of the newly appointed members, Pat Glass, resigned, saying "the situation is untenable".[163]
A motion of no confidence in Corbyn as Labour leader was tabled by MPs Margaret Hodge and Ann Coffey on 24 June 2016.[164] Hodge said: "This has been a tumultuous referendum which has been a test of leadership ... Jeremy has failed that test". Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and union leaders including Len McCluskey condemned the motion.[165][166]
On 28 June, he lost the vote of confidence by Labour Party MPs by 172–40.[167] He responded with a statement that the motion had no "constitutional legitimacy" and that he intended to continue as the elected leader. The vote did not require the party to call a leadership election, but was expected to lead to a leadership challenge.[168][169] Corbyn was encouraged to resign by Tom Watson and senior Labour politicians including his predecessor, Ed Miliband.[170] Several union leaders (from GMB, UCATT, the CWU, the TSSA, ASLEF, the FBU, the BFWAU and the NUM) issued a joint statement saying that Corbyn was "the democratically-elected leader of Labour and his position should not be challenged except through the proper democratic procedures provided for in the party's constitution" and that a leadership election would be an "unnecessary distraction".[171]
2016 leadership challenge and election
Main article: 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election
The division between Corbyn and the Labour parliamentary party continued.[172][173] On 11 July 2016 Angela Eagle, who had recently resigned from his Shadow Cabinet, formally launched her leadership campaign.[174] After news reports that Eagle's office had been vandalised, and threats and abuse to other MPs, including death threats to himself, Corbyn said: "It is extremely concerning that Angela Eagle has been the victim of a threatening act" and called for "respect and dignity, even where there is disagreement
On 12 July 2016, following a dispute as to whether the elected leader would need nominations in an election as a "challenger" to their own leadership, Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) resolved that Corbyn, as the incumbent leader, had an automatic right to be on the ballot,[177] and also decided that members needed to have been a member for more than six months to be eligible to vote, meaning that many members who had joined recently would not be able to vote. The NEC's decision was that "registered supporters" would be entitled to vote if they paid a one off fee of £25. 184,541 people subsequently paid the one-off fee to become "registered supporters" of the party during the two-day window in July, meaning that over 700,000 people had a vote in the leadership election.[178][179][180][181] The decision to retain Corbyn on the ballot was contested unsuccessfully in a High Court action brought by Labour donor Michael Foster.[182]
On 13 July, Owen Smith entered the Labour Party leadership race.[183] Subsequently, on 19 July, Angela Eagle withdrew and offered her endorsement to Smith.[184]
A survey of the public found that 66% of those surveyed believed that the Labour party needed a new leader before the 2020 elections and only 23 percent believed that Corbyn would make a good Prime Minister while Theresa May had an approval rating of 55 percent.[185] A later poll on 23 July found that among those who said they backed Labour, 54% supported Corbyn against just 22% who would prefer Smith. When voters were asked who they thought would be the best prime minister – Corbyn or Theresa May – among Labour supporters 48% said Corbyn and 22% May, among all UK voters 52% chose May and just 16% were for Corbyn.[186]
More than 40 female Labour MPs, in an open letter during the campaign in July 2016, called on Corbyn to deal with issues relating to online abuse, and criticised him for his allegedly unsatisfactory responses and inaction.[187] Speaking at the launch of policies intending to democratise the internet in late August, Corbyn described such abuse as "appalling". He continued: "I have set up a code of conduct on this. The Labour party has a code of conduct on this, and it does have to be dealt with".[188]
On 16 August 2016, Corbyn released a video of himself sitting on the floor of a Virgin Trains East Coast train while travelling to a leadership hustings in Gateshead. Corbyn said the train was "ram-packed" and used this to support his policy to reverse the 1990s privatisation of the railways of Great Britain.[189] A dispute, nicknamed Traingate in the media, developed a week later when Virgin released CCTV images appearing to show that Corbyn had walked past some available seats on the train before recording his video.[190] Corbyn subsequently said that there had not been room for all his team to sit together until later on in the journey, when other passengers were upgraded by train staff.[
The psephologist John Curtice wrote just before Corbyn's second leadership win: "There is evidently a section of the British public, to be found particularly among younger voters, for whom the Labour leader does have an appeal; it just does not look like a section that is big enough, on its own at least, to enable Labour to win a general election".[192] Meanwhile, a poll for The Independent by BMG Research, suggested that working class voters were more likely to consider Corbyn "incompetent" than those from the middle class, and a higher proportion thought he was "out of touch" also.[193] Martin Kettle of The Guardian wrote that "many Labour MPs, even some who face defeat, want an early election" to prove decisively that Corbyn's Labour is unelectable as a government.[194] "If there is hope for Labour it lies with the voters. Only they can change the party".[194]
Corbyn was re-elected as Labour leader on 24 September, with 313,209 votes (61.8%) compared to 193,229 (38.2%) for Owen Smith – a slightly increased share of the vote compared to his election in 2015, when he won 59%. On a turnout of 77.6%, Corbyn won the support of 59% of party members, 70% of registered supporters and 60% of affiliated supporters. In his acceptance speech, Corbyn called on the "Labour family" to end their divisions and to "wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work we've got to do as a party".[195] He continued: "Together, arguing for the real change this country needs, I have no doubt this party can win the next election whenever the Prime Minister decides to call it and form the next government."[196]
Article 50
In January 2017, Corbyn announced that he would impose a three-line whip to force Labour MPs in favour of triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to initiate the withdrawal of the UK from the EU. In response, two Labour whips said they would vote against the bill. Tulip Siddiq, the shadow minister for early years, and Jo Stevens, the Shadow Welsh Secretary resigned in protest.[197][198] On 1 February, forty seven Labour MPs defied Corbyn's whip on the second reading of the bill.[199]
May 2017 local elections
At the 2017 local elections, Labour lost nearly 400 councillors and control of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire county council.[200] The BBC's Projected National Vote Share was 38% for the Conservatives, 27% for Labour, 18% for the Liberal Democrats and 5% for UKIP, with others on around 12%.[201]
2017 general election
Corbyn said he welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May's proposal to seek an early general election in 2017.[202] He said his party should support the government's move in the parliamentary vote.[203]
Earlier in the year, Corbyn had become the first opposition party leader since 1982 to lose a by-election to an incumbent government,[204] and at the time May called the election Labour trailed the Conservative Party by up to 25 points in some opinion polls.[205] A large Conservative majority was widely predicted. Following the short campaign, Labour again finished as the second largest party in parliament but surprised many pundits by increasing their share of the popular vote to 40%, resulting in a net gain of 30 seats and a hung parliament. It was the first time Labour had made a net gain of seats since 1997, and the party's 9.6% increase in vote share was its largest in a single general election since 1945.[205][206][207]
Corbyn's election campaign was run under the slogan "For the Many, Not the Few"[208] and featured rallies with a large audience and connected with a grassroots following for the party, including appearing on stage in front of a crowd of 20,000 at the Wirral Live Festival in Prenton Park.[209][210] He chose to take part in television debates and dressed more professionally than usual, wearing a business suit and tie.[211] He said the result was a public call for the end of "austerity politics" and suggested May should step down as Prime Minister.[205] Corbyn said that he had received the largest vote for a winning candidate in the history of his borough.[212]
Opinion polling
Main articles: Opinion polling for the 2017 United Kingdom general election § Preferred Prime Minister polling, and Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election § Preferred Prime Minister polling
Opinion polls during the first few months of his leadership gave Corbyn lower personal approval ratings than any previous Labour leader in the early stages of their leadership amongst the general public.[213] His approval amongst party members was initially strong reaching a net approval of +45 in May 2016, though this fell back sharply to just +3 by the end of the next month following criticism of Corbyn's handling of the EU referendum and a string of Shadow Cabinet resignations.[214]
A poll by Election Data in February 2017 found that 50% of Labour voters wanted Corbyn to stand down by the next election, while 44% wanted him to stay. In the same month, YouGov found party members' net approval rating of Corbyn was 17%, whereas a year earlier the result found by the same pollsters had been 55%.[215] Also during February 2017, Ipsos MORI found Corbyn's satisfaction rating among the electorate as a whole was minus 38%; among Labour voters it was minus 9%.[216]
Polling by the end of the first week of campaigning during the 2017 general election was suggesting a defeat for Labour with the parliamentary party much reduced and a landslide victory for the Conservatives with a majority of perhaps 150 MPs. An ITV Wales/YouGov poll at this time placed the Conservatives on 40% in Wales against Labour's 30%; Labour MPs have formed a majority in Wales since the 1922 election.[217] An opinion poll published on 22 May suggested that the position had been reversed, with Labour now polling 44% in Wales and the Conservatives 34%.[218] Polls following the publication of the Labour and Conservative manifestos suggested that nationally, Labour was narrowing the Conservative lead to nine points, with YouGov putting the party on 35% of the vote.[219] The final election polls predicted an increased majority for the Tories.[220]
At the end of Theresa May's time as Prime Minister, she had a small lead over Corbyn in the best PM polling question.
Second term as Leader of the Opposition (2017–2019)
Opinion polling
In the months following the election, Labour consistently had a small lead in opinion polling.[221] After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, he gained double-digit leads over Corbyn on the "Best PM" question,[222] although Corbyn was seen to be "more in touch" with ordinary people than Johnson.[223] Labour fell behind the Tories, partly because it lost some of its pro-Remain support to the Liberal Democrats.[224][225]
June 2017 Shadow Cabinet dismissals
Corbyn sacked three Shadow Cabinet members and a fourth resigned[226] after they rebelled against party orders to abstain on a motion aimed at keeping the UK in the EU single market, which was put forward by Labour MP Chuka Umunna.[226]
Breakaway group of Labour MPs
In February 2019, seven MPs – Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey – resigned from the Labour Party to form The Independent Group, citing Corbyn's handling of Brexit and of allegations of antisemitism.[227] They were soon joined by Joan Ryan while Ian Austin resigned to sit as an independent.
Resignation of Theresa May
In May 2019, Theresa May announced her resignation and stood down as Prime Minister in July, following the election of her replacement, former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.[228] Corbyn said that Labour was ready to fight an election against Johnson.[229]
Other events
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