Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why is Jeremy Corbyn insisting on speaking at the CND rally?

Jeremy Corbyn is this weekend campaigning against Labour Party policy. A year ago, it would have been quite unremarkable for the then obscure backbencher to turn up to the CND rally and give a speech against nuclear weapons. But now he’s the Labour leader, Corbyn will be speaking against the current official policy of the party he heads up.

This has obviously annoyed the many pro-Trident MPs in Labour, though some of their public frustration includes feigned surprise, given their party elected a man who sticks to his principles like glue, and who has hardly snuck those principles up on his party after election. He’s been going on about them for years.

But what is interesting is that while Corbyn thinks those principles are so important that he should publicly campaign for a policy his party does not (yet) have, he hasn’t yet found time to discuss the matter with his Shadow Cabinet.

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