Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Could Jeremy Corbyn become a left-wing Nigel Farage?

Jeremy Corbyn (Getty Images)

Why can’t Jeremy Corbyn be a left-wing Farage? Why can’t he threaten Labour as Ukip and its successor parties threatened and continue to threaten the Tories? There is a gap in the market for a party to the left of Labour, and Corbyn seems just the man to fill it. 

Those of us who intensely disliked his leadership of the Labour party disliked most of all the gormless personality cult which surrounded him and did so much to destroy the left’s claim to possess a sceptical intelligence. But there is no doubt that, if you want to build a new movement, having tens of thousands, and in all likelihood hundreds of thousands, of devotees is a great place to start.

I live in Islington and the Labour candidate Praful Nargund is not well known.

Nor will many on the British left be over-concerned that Corbyn is out of Labour because he refused to apologise for presiding over one of the worst moments in Labour history.

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