Corbyn’s ex-spinner exposes an irreconcilably divided Labour

One of the favourite tenets of Jeremy Corbyn supporters is that their movement is persecuted by the ‘mainstream media’ and that if only there were a fair, left-wing-friendly press in this country, then the public would be flocking to JC’s hugely popular policies. This debate has trudged its way through many acres of print already, but the insight into how Corbyn’s own team dealt with the media from former Labour spinner Matt Zarb-Cousin in an interview this week is very interesting indeed.

Zarb-Cousin was, like his former colleague Kevin Slocombe, respected by many lobby journalists as someone who dealt with their queries as efficiently as possible. This is never a given for spinners – there are advisers in all parties who are notorious for not answering their phones or never bothering to do the rounds of the desks in the rabbit warren of offices in Westminster where parliamentary and political journalists work.