Neil Schofield-Hughes

The Theory and Practice of Corbynism Neil Schofield-Hughes

In the summer of 2015, following a catastrophic general election defeat, the Labour Party - wholly unpredictability - elected the veteran Left-wing backbencher Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. After a year in which his Parliamentary Party passed a no-confidence vote and most of his Shadow Cabinet resigned, Corbyn was re-elected in the summer of 2016 by an increased margin, comfortably seeing off a challenge from Owen Smith. And in June 2017, Corbyn's Labour Party hugely out-performed expectations in a general election called by Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May in the expectation of wiping out a fractured Labour opposition, depriving her of her Commons majority. Since Corbyn was first elected, there has been much argument about what Corbyn represents, and what his period as Labour leader tells us about his Party and about the nature of UK Labour politics. Following his election, Jeremy Corbyn promised that there would be a new style and method of politics. The purpose of this book is to offer a critical examination of the politics of the Labour Party following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader in 2015 Written from the perspective of a Labour Party member and activist, it considers why the Labour Party overwhelmingly elected Corbynism as its leader in 2015, analysing the failures of New Labour in opposition from 2010-2015. It examines just who are the new members who surged into the Labour Party in 2015, and, using analyses of Labour's positions on Brexit and antisemitism, asks whether the Corbyn Labour Party really has what it takes to defeat austerity and change the landscape of British politics.