From top: Jeremy Corbyn; Dr Julien Mercille
UK Labour Party rivals blame leader Jeremy Corbyn for the referendum vote.
But they helped create the conditions for a Brexit victory.
Dr Julien Mercille writes:
We are witnessing an attempted “coup” on Jeremy Corbyn by a “cabal” led by the right-wing of the Labour Party – those are the words of the Financial Times, which doesn’t like Corbyn at all.
We’ve heard over and over that Corbyn “lacks ideas” or “has the wrong ideas for Britain” or “is not a good leader”.
And that, by implication, those seeking to remove him would provide “good leadership” and “a strong opposition to the Conservatives”.
Really?
A quick look at the policies espoused by Corbyn and his allies versus those supported by the anti-Corbyn gang should settle the debate quickly.
Let’s compare how the Corbyn camp voted on the Iraq War, Trident nuclear renewal, and austerity, key policies for Britain.
I’ve chosen to compare, on one hand, Corbyn and two of his strong allies (John McDonnell and Diane Abbott) and those leading the charge against him and who are trying to convince us they’d be better leaders for Labour (Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper, Angela Eagle, Margaret Hodge, Liz Kendall, Owen Smith, Tom Watson).
First, let’s take the Iraq War, a criminal enterprise by any account.
In March 2003, a vote was taken in the British Parliament to go to war with Iraq. The Corbyn team all voted NO to war on Iraq, while the anti-Corbyn team all voted YES to war on Iraq:
Corbyn: NO
Diane Abbott: NO
John McDonnell: NO
Hilary Benn: YES
Yvette Cooper: YES
Angela Eagle: YES
Margaret Hodge: YES
Tom Watson: YES
Liz Kendall: not an MP yet
Owen Smith: not an MP yet
The Chilcot investigation on the British government’s involvement in Iraq will be released this Wednesday. Hopefully it will strongly attack Tony Blair and the Labour MPs such as those who now want to oust Corbyn for taking the country into an illegal and immoral war.
The Chilcot report should act as a cold shower on the anti-Corbyn team’s efforts to pretend they’re sensible leaders.
It is also plausible that they launched their coup ahead of the report’s release, hoping to unseat Corbyn before the bad press of Chilcot tarnishes their reputations.
Second, the British government has sought to replace the Trident nuclear system based on submarines with a modernised system, at a cost evaluated at anywhere between £25 billion and £100 billion. Think of what could be done with those funds if they were not spent on nuclear weapons.
The Corbyn team has opposed the replacement of Trident, while the anti-Corbyn team has supported it. For example, let’s look at this vote on 20 January 2015 to scrap Trident:
Corbyn: YES, scrap Trident
Diane Abbott: YES
John McDonnell: YES
Hilary Benn: (absent for this vote but voted to renew Trident in other votes)
Yvette Cooper: NO, renew Trident
Angela Eagle: NO
Margaret Hodge: (absent for this vote but voted to renew Trident in other votes)
Tom Watson: (absent for this vote but voted to renew Trident in other votes)
Liz Kendall: NO
Owen Smith: NO
Third, on economics, Corbyn’s team has a strong record of opposing senseless and cruel austerity, while the anti-Corbyn team has endorsed it to a greater extent.
For example, in 2015 the David Cameron government proposed a big austerity bill to cut £12 billion in welfare.
The bill sought to reduce the household welfare cap from £26,000 to £23,000, abolish legally binding child poverty targets, and cut child tax credits, cut housing benefits for young people, and cut the Employment and Support Allowance.
The Labour Party leadership (Hariett Harman was interim leader at that time) directed its MPs not to oppose the Tory bill in order to show that Labour understood that government had to restrain spending.
But 48 out of 216 Labour MPs rejected that directive and voted against the austerity bill while the other Labour MPs did not oppose it (they abstained). The vote was as follows:
Corbyn: OPPOSED austerity bill
Diane Abbott: OPPOSED
John McDonnell: OPPOSED
Hilary Benn: ABSTAINED
Yvette Cooper: ABSTAINED
Angela Eagle: ABSTAINED
Margaret Hodge: ABSTAINED
Liz Kendall: ABSTAINED
Tom Watson: ABSTAINED
Owen Smith: ABSTAINED
In other words, the anti-Corbyn team blames Corbyn for the Brexit victory, but in fact, it is those who have supported austerity who have created the conditions for the Brexit victory.
Indeed, Brexit was driven in large part by anti-immigrant feelings which could only take root in a climate of economic recession where people are more likely to blame immigrants for lack of employment opportunities and public services.
At the time of the vote, John McDonnell, annoyed by the speeches in Parliament trying to justify the cuts, declared:
“I would swim through vomit to vote against this bill. And listening to some of the nauseating speeches in support of it, I might have to”
The above exercise of comparing the record of Corbyn’s team to that of the anti-Corbyn team can be replicated for other policies to obtain a more systematic picture. In this short article, I’ve chosen a few that were central to governing Britain.
But the lesson seems clear. Next time you hear in the media that “Corbyn has the wrong ideology” but that its challengers are “impressive” and “level-headed”, ask yourself this question:
Should we support team Corbyn, or those who sided with war criminals, the tools of war, and austerity?
Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. Follow him on Twitter: @JulienMercille
Top pic: Reuters
Nice post that
Corbyn also created some of the conditions for Brexit. His half hearted support for Remain allowed UKIP to exploit people’s fears about immigration in what was Labour heartlands. But, he has a lot of support from the grassroots which is why he is taking on the party careerists.
If anything, he is more principled than any Labour leader in quite a long time and the very fact Cameron was shouting at him to go is a pretty good indication that he is on the ball.
“and the very fact Cameron was shouting at him to go is a pretty good indication that he is on the ball. either that or merely that David Cameron enjoyed humiliating him and the opposition, in leaders questions – you know one or the other.
Cameron only humiliated himself with that carry on. And the whole pig fellatio thing.
Corbyn and his followers seem to me to be people who would prefer to win an argument than win an election.. politics is a messy compromised business but you’ll never serve the people you need most by always being right and always in opposition.
This exactly.
See also AAA/PBP, etc etc
I meant people in need most not ‘people you need most’…. told you, it’s a messy business.
er, no-one on the left is saying Corbyn has the wrong arguments. they’re saying he’s incompetent – a point I note your post does nothing to address
???? I think he’s completely incompetent. However, the point I was making (in simpler language for you) is that he is surrounded by swivel eyed loons who are more interested in ideological purity than getting into power to serve the vulnerable people who really need a more caring Government.
why are you replying to me?
I thought you were replying to me. Apologies if not.
how dare you ‘reply’ to moouldy willie?
This is an internet forum FFS!
For proof that Corbyn “is not a good leader” one need only consider that he’s barely 6 months in the job and the bulk of his parliamentary party want him gone.
His distinctiveness and ideals got him elected, but his lack of leadership has him to the last stopping off point before resignation – the point where people start feeling pity for you.
Those MPs didn’t want him in the first place and have taken the first opportunity they could to try and oust him. He saw the same percentage of Remain votes his constituency as Nicola Sturgeon did in hers. The problem is with the MPs here.
And the fact that Corbyn can’t lead them.
let me guess – he wants to increase term limits on abortions
or he’s an atheist
or even worse, a woman?
It’s not really about the Brexit is it? This is confusing the issue here.
We’ve heard a lot from various people about how Jeremy Corbyn was democratically elected by Trade Unions and political activists who stumped up 3 quid for the privilege of getting the Labour leader they liked.
This misses the point though, whilst its OK appoint your dream labour leader, the much stronger democratic test on how popular he is, comes at the general election. Pro Tip: Most of the people voting won’t have spent 3 quid to get Jezza.
So let’s not muddy the issue by talking about where competitors stand or stood on Trident, Iraq, Libya and stuff like that. The concern for a lot of Labour MPs, is that being a labour MP, brings in a nice little income, whereas losing your job at a general election, puts you in the dole queue.
And this ability to end up in the dole queue becomes all the more real, when one realises, that many labour MPs don’t represent the opinions and views of the people who elected them. They represent the ideas and view of a metropolitan, progressive left elite, who their voters despise.
This would normally be an OK luxury, if you have the good fortune to be in a labour safe seat. However it is also one that can be exploited by UKIP, as the UK First past the post system takes no prisoners. Labour MPs have had the fortune to look at how their wards voted in the Brexit referendum.
A practical, down to earth, consideration Julien Mercille seems unable or to stupid to make.
Luckily for him, he does not answer to his parliamentary colleagues. He is – as we all know – elected by the party membership. So, there will be a leadership election before the year is out and he will run. The party will shred and possibly split. Only then – after Article 50 is invoked – will Theresa May as PM call a general election. Many of those who oppose Corbyn will not be selected to run or will lose their seat. WIth all of that going on, the Tories will win another majority and UKIP will win seats. In other words – they’re all buggered.
If the Tories appoint Theresa May, then they won’t call an election, The majority of the conservative party members are leavers not remainers. If they appoint Theresa May , then both Labour and Conservatives will be looking at the UKIP Dawn. UKIP were a disorganised rabble at the last election, it would however be foolish to presume that they might not have got their act together by the next election.
Hmmm….. Farage just bailed……
Corbyn may have beliefs, but he condemns rather than challenges. He offers a critique of the past, but no real & workable vision for the future. He is like the shadow of Scarlet Pimpernel . His involvement in the Remain campaign was limp at best , impotent at worst ( mmm could explain the revolving door of wives). He is decidedly dull and should do the party a favour by retiring to the comfort of the back benches . A political leader should have principles, experience and education. 2 out of three won’t cut it. Looks like Mcdonnell is being guided by Little Gerry’s Book though and is in it for the long haul. “No Surrender” MCDim . A defo 10 out of ten for Corbyn’s fight to stay. Why did he not put the same effort into the Remain Campaign ? The working class of the Valleys would have benefited from it.
Good article, I’ve always been a fan of Corbyn’s so I am hoping that he can hang on because, while he may not have the support of his MPs the people on the street, who are sick of self-serving politicians, are behind him and I’m sure if there was an election tomorrow he would give the Tories a closer contest than Milliband did.
I don’t agree with those who are saying Corbyn is bad for the party and making them unelectable, they are just repeating media rhetoric and choosing to ignore the fact that the Conservatives lost four times as many seats as Labour in the local elections and Labour increased its majority in the Tooting by election – under Corbyn!
And lets not forget he held onto the Labour safe seat, of Oldham North by the skin of his teeth, with “postal votes”. – truly a leader of our time.
If you mean Oldham West – there is no Oldham North Constituency, I’d hardly call 62 per cent of the vote and a 7.3 swing towards Labour holding on by the skin of his teeth, and the postal vote allegations by the UKIP candidate were even dismissed by UKIP itself
blairite pondscum
Time for a split?
Corbyn makes me crill, somehow; he seems so devoted to looking in the mirror at lovely me. I’m sure he’s highly moral and correct, but his personality seems so utterly egotistical.
yes thy blairites can p1sh of back to the tories
If Corbyn had backed Brexit like a third of Labour voters, on the grounds that the UK gets ignored in decision making, the EU is anti democratic etc. etc. then he’d be in a great position now. Labour would be back on track to become old Labour again and the Brexit voters wouldn’t be compared to Nazis. So maybe he’s not the right man for the job after all. It’s a great opportunity missed. Is the Brexit already paying off. Will the UK have to pay anything towards the 150bln Euro that Renzi is about to pump into Italian banks, in defiance of Brussels, because he fears elements of Italian society more than the Eurocrats in Brussels?
Well, it was not his referendum, anyway. He could conclude that things are as they are and take the benefits, which also follows the Brexit: that neolib politics are not backed from the EU, so that the fight for a fairer Britain is up to its electorate.
And then, when you have fixed things in Britain, and the EU have fixed the same issues on the Continent, join forces again.
Too much is made of the temperature of Corbyn’s remain support. The result was a foregone conclusion and there was little he could have done to influence. Many of those campaigning more vigorously probably actually damaged it more. There was little more to the campaign than fearmongering.
Julien, the potential efficacy of the leader of a political party, that would consider itself capable of running a large western power, cannot be distilled down to a few carefully selected votes in the houses of parliament. A educated man that is a smart as you should bloody well know this.
1 – The Iraq War – the guys that wanted war lied to everyone and convinced people Iraq had all sorts of WMD. Had they known the true story I suspect/hope many would not have voted for war.
2 – Trident – I agree that spend €100Bn on a nuclear missile is not the best way to spend that money, but the world is full of headbangers, and having a deterrent is a bloody good idea. Will your moral superiority comfort you when some Putin-esque prick is stomping across Europe wreaking havoc?
3 – The UK Economy is booming – so Cameron and co’s “senseless” policies appear to be working, and attracting workers from all over the world.
…well done Julien for pointing out yet again the complicity of the media in this Blairite witch hunt…the really scarey thing is that Murdoch is moving in over here…
Great article and something that is becoming more and more obvious to objective people. Corbyn is hated for his anti-austerity policies. He is standing up for working people against the political and media establishment. I hope he is elected PM and brings in his people’s QE policy. It would be good for the UK and Ireland.
@ Mak : Sure. If you think high inflation will win over the voters