Guess who’s back? As predictable as rain squalls in a London August, Jeremy Corbyn is on the march — to annoy mainstream politics and especially a moderate Labour leader who might actually run the country. An article in the (ideologically aligned) local paper declares the need to make Islington North the hub of an economic alternative to the shared caution of Starmerism and Sunak.
Stripped of the official Labour candidacy after his refusal to accept responsibility for the anti-Semitism on the Left of the party he once led, Corbyn looks set to run on a mission which is part vanity, part stubborness and a twist of late personality cult. It is also a generous gift to Tory tacticians. They will enjoy the distraction from their looming electoral woes. And it gives a practical headache to Labour over how to conduct a battle for votes which will remind voters of its far-Left flirtation as well as how far its economic recipe should diverge from Sunak’s.
