Corbyn crashes Tory conference

The 2015 Conservative Party conference in Manchester stood out for its ugly scenes – with protesters hurling eggs at attendees. Jeremy Corbyn inflamed tensions further by attending a rally on the eve of that conference which called on Tories to be ‘thrown out of Manchester’.

Is a similar series of events on the cards this weekend when members gather in Birmingham? Corbyn notably stayed away from subsequent conferences in 2016 and 2017 which coincidentally were much quieter affairs. But this year the threat of an angry horde of SWP sorts is concerning both CCHQ and the Birmingham police.

Mr S is informed that Conservative HQ are aware of the fact PM-in-waiting Corbyn plans to speak at two Labour rallies in the Birmingham area on Saturday afternoon. This just happens to coincide with the arrival of Conservatives en-masse in Birmingham City Centre before conference is formally opened on Sunday morning. That Corbyn is speaking to a rally in Halesowen 15 minutes from the ICC, and then campaigning over lunchtime only slightly further afield in Redditch is probably nothing to do with the large anti-tory protests organised by the so called ‘Peoples Assembly’ planned for the city centre later that afternoon.