Steerpike Steerpike

Lansman plots his Cornish comeback

(Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Five years ago, Tony Benn’s former bag carrier was staging the most extraordinary Labour coup, ushering in the disastrous Bennite restoration that was Jeremy Corbyn’s rule. 

Then he went on to found Momentum — Labour’s party within a party, the vanguard of the proletariat that would keep Labour’s wayward liberal MPs on the narrow path of socialism. That path so nearly reached its conclusion at the 2017 general election when Corbyn came within a few thousand votes of No. 10. Since then, catastrophe. Labour obliterated, the leadership lost to a competent social democrat. 

And yet the true path of socialism continues, meandering as it does from the Corbynite stronghold of Islington, down the M4, and now, naturally, stopping off at the sleepy Cornish village of Mousehole. This is where Jon Lansman has taken his permanent revolution. Land’s End shall be socialism’s beginning. 

According to St Ives Labour party, Lansman is plotting his return to politics — the self-confessed newcomer to Cornwall is fighting to become a candidate at the next council elections. The

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