The rise of Jeremy Corbyn – the veteran socialist leader of the Labour Party – has given rise to a not-unexpected political vocabulary. There are Corbynites and Corbinistas, there is Corbynspeak and Corbynmania, and then of course there is Corbynomics, the name given to his radical economic agenda.
Outwardly, the mild-mannered, polite and indeed almost saintly socialist hardly fits his firebrand reputation. But Mr. Corbyn’s radical agenda is clear and persuasive, and inevitably, challenges loom. His election received a reaction from the morning headlines that reflects the bandwidth of public engagement with him: from the Sunday Observor’s somewhat neutral “Corbyn hails his huge mandate as he sets out leftwing agenda” to the Daily Mail’s “Red and buried: Labour rocked as shock poll says party will lose next TWO elections, seven key figures quit and MPs plot to oust Corbyn after Left-winger’s sensational victory.”
The first challenge for Mr. Corbyn is winning over or at least accommodating the opposition within his own parliamentary party where only 20 members out of 232 voted for him. Although he has emphasised unity and inclusiveness, Mr. Corbyn’s victory announcement was followed by several resignations from the shadow cabinet, including shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, shadow communities secretary Emma Reynolds, and shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves.
>A new Left rises in the West
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>The return of ideology
Tired of being fed the same bland diet in different forms, voters in the U.K., unlike in India, are demanding clearer choices, and there is a clamour for more ideological politics, says HASAN SUROOR
Leadership candidates Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall have refused to serve under him. During the campaign many grandees of the Labour party, including former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown warned of Labour’s demise under Mr. Corbyn’s left agenda. His critics say that as a “serial-rebel” he is hardly the paragon of party unity. He has voted over 500 times against the party’s formal position in Parliament.
In an interview with the popular Andrew Marr show on BBC , Deputy Leader Tom Watson said there was “zero chance of a coup” against Mr. Corbyn, even as he indicated that several issues on Mr. Corbyn’s agenda – like his opposition to Britain’s nuclear submarine programme Trident, and his view that the U.K. must withdraw from NATO – are problematic and would have to be discussed.
His opposition to the war in Syria and Iraq has been used by the Conservatives to warn that Labour under his leadership is “a serious risk to our nation’s security, our economy’s security and your family’s security.”
This week Mr. Corbyn will announce his shadow cabinet, convince his MPs to vote against the Trade Union Bill that seeks to crack down on strikes, and make his debut at the Prime Minister’s Question on Wednesday.
| Leaders of the Labour Party (1906–2015) | |
|---|---|
| Keir Hardie (1906-1908) | Arthur Henderson (1908-1910)(1914-1917)(1931-1932) |
| George Nicoll Barnes (1910-1911) | Ramsay MacDonald (1911-1914) (1922-1931) |
| William Adamson (1917-1921) | J. R. Clynes (1921-1922) |
| George Lansbury (1932-1935) | Clement Attlee (1935-1955) |
| Hugh Gaitskell (1955-1963) | George Brown (1963) |
| Harold Wilson (1963-1976) | James Callaghan (1976-1980) |
| Michael Foot (1980-1983) | Neil Kinnock (1983-1992) |
| John Smith (1992-1994) | Margaret Beckett (1994) |
| Tony Blair (1994-2007) | Gordon Brown (2007-2010) |
| Harriet Harman (2010) | Ed Miliband (2010-2015) |
