Monday 30 March 2020

HISTORY OF A LOSER: CORBYN 2016

In part two of our look back at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership we find the Labour leader struggling on two fronts.  The lifelong Eurosceptic is trapped in an overwhelmingly pro-EU party as the referendum looms.  The party adopts a Remain position, but MPs are free to campaign for either side.  A handful back Leave, but it's Corbyn's lack of enthusiasm for Remain that raises eyebrows.  When the referendum is lost, Corbyn is slammed and the following week he is subject to a humiliating vote of no confidence by MPs.  A leadership challenge follows, but he easily defeats challenger Owen Smith.  Corbyn's Momentum footsoldiers embark on a long-term mission to gain control of the party and purge his critics.

06.01.16 - The first of many reshuffles is a disaster as three frontbenchers resign in protest at the removal of Pat McFadden for 'disloyalty'.  McFadden had previously criticised Corbyn's response to Islamist terror attacks.


11.01.16 - Corbyn's Twitter account is hacked and various foul-mouthed tweets are posted, but the most famous remains the 'pie tweet'.



18.01.16 - Corbyn proposes non-nuclear submarines, a policy ridiculed in Christian Adams' cartoon in the Evening Standard


25.01.16 - Corbyn is chaperoned around a migrant camp by an open borders activist


25.01.16


02.02.16 - Corbyn takes a pop at scruffy parents


09.04.16 - The battle between Blairism and Corbynism continues


01.05.16 - Anti-Semitism begins to rear its head and Ken Livingstone is suspended


03.05.16


06.05.16 - There was no Corbyn surge in the local elections, the party failed to win a majority in the Welsh Assembly and there was a disastrous result in the Scottish Parliament election.  Labour shrunk even further behind the SNP and humiliatingly finished third, behind the Conservatives.


18.05.16


19.05.16


19.06.16


27.06.16 - We'll never know whether he did or not


28.06.16 - After Remain lost, MPs took revenge on Corbyn for his lacklustre effort and humiliated him in a vote of no confidence


30.06.16


11.07.16 - There were lots of famous resignations around this time and Corbyn was under immense pressure to follow suit


02.08.16 - Kez and Jez.  The Scottish Labour leader was another critic of Corbyn.


05.08.16


11.08.16 - It emerges that official Corbyn and Momentum t-shirts are made in Bangladeshi sweatshops


17.08.16 - The 'traingate' scandal.  Corbyn is mocked far and wide after he falsely claims the train carriage was 'ram-packed'.





18.08.16


19.08.16


26.08.16


07.09.16 - UB40 back Corbyn.  Well, some of them anyway.


24.09.16 - Corbyn romps home, but not everyone's impressed



09.10.16 - Corbyn's latest reshuffle is mocked as a north London clique


19.10.16 - Yvette Cooper never did take in any of the migrants she promised


25.10.16 - As the French begin to clear the so-called 'Calais jungle', Corbyn is there to promote the migrant cause


12.12.16


17.12.16


24.12.16


TOMORROW:  2017, a surprise election and a surprise result.