And he has achieved all this whilst under constant attack from the media, security services, and much of the PLP. That he has managed to remain relatively calm and composed through it all, is quite amazing, if you ask me. (Imagine having millions of people thinking you’re a terrorist-loving, antisemite!).
As for criticising Labour’s approach to Brexit - they have had an impossible dilemma.
There are millions of Leave voters who voted Labour in the 2017 general election. Rejecting the referendum result and campaigning for a ‘people’s vote’, was always going to mean potentially losing these voters, and thus likely would mean losing many seats (in the north of England) to the Tories/Brexit Party.
And on the other side, refusing to support a second referendum, would’ve pushed many Labour Remainers to the Lib Dems. (Or so we are told - this didn’t actually happen in the 2017 election, when Labour were promising to respect the referendum).
The compromise approach they’ve taken - to seek a new exit deal with the EU, then put that forward in a second referendum vs Remain, with Corbyn staying neutral, is seen by many as the best of several bad options, as they try desperately to keep both sides happy. But if the polls are accurate, it looks as though those Labour leavers are, as expected, planning on punishing them.
If Labour lose the election next week partly thanks to losing those pro-Leave seats, the 'centrist' establishment, and their media, will obviously blame it all on Corbyn, but really it is they who should take much of the blame - for refusing to recognize that it is ‘centrist’ neoliberalism that created the conditions that led to support for Brexit, and then for simplistically blaming that support on far-right xenophobia/racism - rather than looking at the root cause of that xenophobia. Their calling for the referendum to be scrapped; for Leave voters to be ignored, rather than calling for a reckoning as to how we got here, has always been very short-sighted.
Labour Leavers might be misguided in blaming most of their problems on the EU, but screaming ‘you’re a bunch of idiots and racists’ at them, and seeking to overturn their vote, isn’t exactly going to help change their minds.
One can argue that Corbyn will be to blame, but not for the reasons centrists will say - they will say it is because he is a useless leader who should have made clear that he would back Remain in a second referendum, and that this somehow would’ve miraculously persuaded a bunch of Tory Remainers to vote for socialism - ridiculous. (And of course, they will also say that it is because he isn't personally likable - despite him, by any objective measure, being the most decent, honest, human, uncorrupt potential PM we have had in a very long time, maybe ever).
No, instead, it could be argued on the grounds that it was his backing of a second referendum that did it. But it is hard to blame Corbyn for this, given the immense pressure for a second referendum, and given that it was voted for at Labour conference. The blame should surely be directed mostly at pro-EU fanatics, and the neoliberal establishment/media, who refused to recognize the situation we found ourselves in after the referendum, and seek compromise, and many of whom still refuse to recognize the root cause of all this chaos - decades of neoliberalism - and refuse to recognize the need for a socialistic government to address that root cause.
It is Brexit, and the reactions to it - not really Jeremy Corbyn - that may well have scuppered our chance at having a radical government that would undo decades of neoliberal inequality/poverty/disempowerment etc, and usher in a period of mass investment in public services and poverty alleviation, and a green revolution.
(But hopefully the polls are wrong/can be changed - vote Labour!).
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