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[/audioplayer]It wasn’t meant to work out this way. A month ago, Westminster watched to see if Jeremy Corbyn could get the support of the 35 MPs he needed to enter the Labour leadership race. At the time, it seemed a sort of joke. After all, the people who were lending him their backing weren’t doing so for any great love of Corbyn. As a rule, they either wanted a ‘broad debate’ or thought that the ritual slaughter of the left-wing candidate would make it easier for the new leader to move the party to the centre.
A month on, things look very different. Corbyn now has the endorsement of Unite, the most powerful union in the country, and several others. He has the second highest number of constituency Labour party nominations, his campaign is churning out impressive-looking literature, and sober-minded Labour insiders keep revising upwards how well they think Corbyn will do. Most worryingly for those who want a Labour party that can win elections, Corbyn is dragging the race to the left. One shadow cabinet member laments, ‘It is the Death Star. It is dragging Andy and Yvette in.’ This frontbencher adds, more in anger than sorrow: ‘I feel for them. They’ve got to think about second preferences.’
So a candidate everyone assumed would show the limited appeal of hard-left positions within the Labour party appears to be showing the exact opposite. At the hustings and in televised debates, Corbyn is getting more than his fair share of applause. Meanwhile, Liz Kendall — the soi-disant Blairite candidate — is having to defend herself against the charge that she’s a Tory.
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