The 66-year-old Jeremy Corbyn, a fiercely committed socialist who advocates the end to austerity measures and the UK’s exit from NATO, has become the leader of the Labor Party. His predecessor in the position Ed Miliband resigned after the party’s unsuccessful performance in the general election held in May this year. Corbyn received 59.5 percent of the vote in the first round at a special party congress.
After the results were announced, he made a speech in which he called the process of electing a new Labor leader a “huge democratic exercise.” According to Corbyn, the Labor Party has shown itself as a force, which is “passionate, democratic, diverse, united, and absolutely determined in our quest for a decent and better society.”
Corbyn is known for the frankness with which he expresses extreme left-wing and Marxist views, considered to be a co-founder of the Stop the War Coalition and advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament for the UK. He seeks to end the policy of reducing budget expenditures and, on the contrary, wants to increase them. Previously, Corbyn called radical Islamist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, blacklisted as terrorist organizations by the EU, “our friends,” repeatedly appeared on Russia’s propaganda channels, spoke out for the UK’s exit from NATO and hinted that Ukraine should be a non-aligned state. Speaking in an Iranian propaganda TV broadcast, Corbyn called Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s killing “a tragedy.” The new Labour leader likened the US military to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Tony Blair, who led the Labor Party in three parliamentary elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005, called Corbyn’s victory a tragedy and a disaster. According to Blair, the Labor Party led by Corbyn will never be able to win an election, because his radical left program frightens away most voters. He even advised those who supported Corbyn to get a “heart transplant” if their heart was with Corbyn.
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s response to the new Labor party leader was quite poignant as well. “The Labor Party is now a threat to our national security, our economic security, and your family’s security,” he tweeted on September 13. It is expected that Prime Minister Cameron and opposition leader Corbyn will meet during a parliament debate on September 16.
COMMENTARY
Ian BOND, foreign policy director at the Center for European Reform, London:
“After the unexpected defeat of Labor party in the parliamentary elections in May, Labor supporters were looking for something very different from what had gone before. The other three leadership candidates had been part of the previous opposition leadership team under Ed Miliband, and they found it hard to distance themselves from everything they had been trying to do for the past five years.
“New rules for the leadership election meant that lots of non-members but supporters of the Labor Party could pay three pounds and vote. A lot of them backed Corbyn. That was not decisive (full party members also backed him), but they created the impression that he was gathering a lot of support behind him.
“The trade unions backed him. For many years, they have been well to the left of most of the Labor Party. Union members do not automatically vote in the contest, but those who chose to do so backed the most left-wing candidate.
“A lot of Corbyn’s policies are superficially attractive. He wants to renationalize the railways, and many people in the UK think privatized railways charge passengers too much and do not give a good service. He wants more public investment in the health service, and many people think that public private partnerships have provided big profits for private companies at the expense of good service for patients. He thinks the UK has too much inequality, and most people agree.
“The problem is that most people, including some who voted for him, have not looked closely at the policies he supports, and if they did they would disagree with them. The parliamentary elections showed decisively that not only do most people in the UK not want to live in a socialist country, they do not even want to live in a social-democratic country. As people hear what Jeremy Corbyn wants rather than just vague generalities about the things that are wrong with the country, they are likely to be shocked.
“Could he influence foreign policy? One answer is to say that he is so unlikely to be prime minister that he will not have the chance to pursue any of his crazy foreign policies – including his idea that the EU and NATO are to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (which he, of course, does not think was a Russian invasion).
“There are a couple of areas where he may have a (negative) impact on policy, however, even as opposition leader. First, at some point before the general election in 2020, the government will have to make some decisions on replacement of the Trident nuclear deterrent. Since the Conservatives have a majority, they can get this through the House of Commons without Labor support, but it is an issue on which the maximum possible political consensus would be helpful. With Corbyn, a strong opponent of nuclear weapons, as leader, Labor party will not be much help to the government.
“Second, he is not a strong pro-European, and some of his trade union allies are actively against the EU. Ironically, while many Conservative euroskeptics think the EU is a socialist organization, Corbyn and his supporters think it is a capitalist plot. So, the biggest risk he poses in the foreign policy area is that next year, when David Cameron holds his referendum on membership of the EU, Corbyn will not campaign to keep the UK in. It would become extremely hard for the UK to stay in the EU without solid Labor Party backing, since the opponents will include the UK Independence Party, and half of the Conservative Party.”
