Corbyn and Musk Have New Parties

“The first thing that must strike any outside observer is that Socialism, in its developed form, is a theory confined entirely to the middle classes. The typical Socialist is not, as tremulous old ladies imagine, a ferocious-looking working man with greasy overalls and a raucous voice. He is either a youthful snob-Bolshevik who in five years time will quite probably have made a wealthy marriage and been converted to Roman Catholicism; or, still more typically, a prim little man with ….. a social position which he has no intention of forfeiting”
— George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

Let’s Get the Corbyn Bit Over With

As regular readers know, I’m not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn. In his decades in the House of Commons, he never introduced a single private member’s bill, never sat on a select committee, and rarely showed up when it counted* He’d breeze in, deliver a windy speech to get his name in Hansard, then shuffle off to some fringe meeting where he could drone on to his heart’s content. When the hard graft of legislating came around, he vanished.

He could have retired as a well-meaning eccentric—ineffective but liked. Instead, he became Leader of the Labour Party, led it to a catastrophic defeat, and earned the attention of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

I’ve personally experienced some of the antisemitism his leadership emboldened—something I won’t rehash here.

Do I think Corbyn is personally antisemitic? I don’t know. I doubt he lies awake gnashing his teeth over the Rothschilds. But his worldview is shaped by a threadbare ideology, decades out of date, riddled with antique conspiracy theories about Jews and banking.

He wrote the foreword to a new edition of J.A. Hobson’s 1902 book Imperialism: A Study, a text steeped in Edwardian racial hierarchies—the kind that rates “noble Arabs” above “wicked Jews.” That’s not solidarity. That’s bigotry dressed up as theory.

If he’d worked for me in the NHS, I’d have sacked him. I met plenty like him—privileged, self-righteous, and untouchable. In any workplace, his behaviour towards Chuka Umunna would have amounted to constructive dismissal with uncapped damages on racial grounds. Same with Luciana Berger. And Louise Ellman. And Chi Onwurah. And Thangam Debbonaire. A walking employment tribunal. The kind of liability no public or private organisation can afford anymore.

Defending Corbyn is defending privilege—the notion that a privately educated white man is above the laws that protect everyone else.

His greatest failure? A total refusal to take responsibility—for electoral collapse or the racism crisis. The fact that this disgraced figure thinks he deserves a comeback tells you all you need to know.

Will His Party Do Well?

Corbyn’s new party will be a headache for Labour in a handful of urban seats. He still has the power to rally a narrow demographic: middle-class graduates with activist energy and vintage copies of Socialist Worker. But enthusiasm doesn’t equal mass appeal.

In cities with a high concentration of these voters, the new party might siphon off support. But it will be fighting for the same turf as the Greens, who may yet form an unholy alliance involving Zach Polanski and his army of NLP coaches. Early polling is good, but only as good as The Independent Group all of whom lost their seats:

Corbyn is still toxic to most voters. In fact, having him back in the spotlight might do Labour a favour in many constituencies still haunted by his ghost.

He squandered the networks Labour spent a century building—trade unions, working men’s clubs, generations of working-class loyalty. He enabled Brexit, helped break the bond with older socially conservative voters, and left a scorched-earth political landscape that the Tories, then Reform, waltzed into.

The rot started when his team deselected long-standing councillors who understood their communities, replacing them with smug middle-class mates. Calling Daily Mail readers racists and Sun readers thick might have earned applause on Twitter, but it burned bridges in Labour’s heartlands—where the Mail and Sun are still the most-read papers among Labour voters.

The Real Motivation Behind the New Party

Much of this new project is driven by middle-class factional jealousy. Horrified that Labour might win without them, Corbyn’s clique would rather torch the place than see it governed by someone else. This is one of the people rushing to sign up to Corbyn’s new party:

But the new party faces three big problems:

1. It’s a One-Man Show

Corbyn will be 80 at the next election. The moment he steps back, the party will descend into endless infighting. Factionalism is baked in.

2. It’s Not Radical, Just Nostalgic

Their platform offers no bold vision—just reheated slogans from the ‘70s. Most voters want practical answers to real-world problems, not another round of ideological role-play. The far left haven’t had an original idea in decades and that is exactly how they like it.

3. The Islamist Elephant in the Room

Corbyn’s parliamentary alliance includes four Islamist MPs—none of whom appear to have been invited to the new party. That raises awkward questions. How many young progressives will stick with a party whose MPs oppose LGBT teaching and want equalities legislation repealed?

What’s Really Going On?

There’s a growing appetite for a luxury brand of leftism: plush, privileged, unbothered by fiscal reality. Corbyn offers a Harrods hamper of protest politics. A party with no hope of power, but plenty of self-righteous indulgence.

And let’s be honest—there’s money in it.

Nigel Farage has made a handsome living off the politics of opposition. So have many others on the hard right. Why not the hard left?

During Corbyn’s leadership, plenty of people who used to flog Socialist Worker outside tube stations landed well-paid jobs. A new party means a new gravy train.

When Corbyn eventually retires, Zarah Sultana will inherit a database of 600,000 well-heeled lefties who’ll fund her for life—even if she’s booted from Parliament.

What This Tells Us About the Left

The modern left is just as infantilised as the right—demanding easy answers, refusing to face hard choices.

Rather than engage with the messy compromises of power, some retreat to a fantasy world where all problems can be magicked away with wealth taxes, UBI, and MMT. This isn’t socialism. It’s Trussism for the left.

Worse, the divide between the activist left and the working class is now permanent. Corbyn no longer speaks for the Labour Party—but he still speaks for much of the bourgeois left.

Starmer may be the last working-class leader Labour ever has. The party’s upper echelons no longer trust the lower orders. Any attempt to engage with working-class concerns is dismissed as pandering to Reform voters.

The anti-working-class element has rewritten Labour’s history—casting a century of working-class activism as betrayal, and themselves as the true heirs.

Corbyn and his clique are still following Lenin’s advice: “Support Labour like the noose supports the hanged man.” Pity they never read the rest of Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder. They might recognise themselves.

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Musk: Same Ego, Bigger Wallet

Elon Musk’s new party has a lot in common with Corbyn’s: ego, fantasy, attention-seeking—and a gravy train even more opulent.

The US is in the middle of a slow transformation—from democracy to oligarchy. By the end of Trump’s next term, it may well be an authoritarian state run by billionaires.

This new authoritarianism isn’t driven by ideology. It’s about money and power. Though plenty of Trump’s allies are ideological—white nationalists, Christian dominionists—the real goal is control.

And that includes controlling the opposition.

Musk’s party gives us a glimpse of the playbook. Russia has fake opposition parties that pose no real threat. In the US, the goal is the same: replace meaningful opposition with a circus act. It doesn’t matter if Musk and Trump are “feuding”—his party would never challenge America’s new ruling class.

In the UK, the authoritarian right aren’t quite as far along. Reform is a potential puppet party, but they still need a left-wing protest party to absorb middle-class discontent—without appealing broadly enough to win. Corbyn fits the role perfectly.

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Politics as Content

The rise of Corbyn and Musk is just the latest symptom of a politics shaped by social media. People want instant gratification. Don’t like the government? Vote for a different one next week. Or the week after.

It’s bonkers. But it’s also our reality.

Social media has infantilised the electorate and hollowed out politics. Now, we get outrage instead of outcomes, slogans instead of solutions.

And just like that, the noose tightens.

Post Script

There was much debate about Corbyn’s actual record as a backbencher. He signed over 17,000 Early Day Motions, the most prolific ever.

This is one of the most notable:

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/26919

In which he denies genocide in the Yugoslavian Civil War “a ‘genocide’ that never really existed”.

He did produce a small number of 10 minute rule bills, but not an actual Private Members Bill for debate on the PMB days. This might seem like a narrow distinction, but it matters in the legislative process. A 10 minute rule bill is little more than a glorified EDM. He did sit on a standing committee, but never on a committee that scrutinised legislation.

I am sure there will be further debate on this subject.

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