London: Britain’s revitalised Labour opposition kicks off its annual conference on Sunday with leader Jeremy Corbyn set to lay out his party’s agenda, free from the leadership challenges of previous years.
The left-of-centre party confounded expectations in June’s snap election by gaining an extra three million votes, a ringing endorsement for the anti-austerity programme of its veteran leftist leader.
His party is now polling higher than Prime Minister Theresa May’s governing Conservatives, unthinkable only a year ago when Corbyn had just won a leadership battle sparked by MPs angry at his lukewarm campaigning to stay in the European Union (EU).
“The election has changed politics in this country,” Corbyn told The Guardian newspaper in a recent interview, adding “the strength of the party” would be the focus of the conference in Brighton on England’s south coast.
“We are now the mainstream,” he insisted.
Labour has yet to set out a clear position on Brexit, particularly on what terms Britain will retain access to the EU’s single market.
Corbyn earlier this month called for “full access”, later adding “whether that’s formal membership — which is only possible, I believe, if you are actually a member of the EU — or whether it’s an agreed trading relationship, is open for discussion”.
The country will be looking for a clear indication of the party’s plan, with Corbyn torn between honouring the wishes of the millions of Leave voters in the party’s heartlands, and the party’s new army of young supporters and its MPs, who strongly backed staying in the EU.
Partly because of the dilemma, Corbyn ran an election campaign on domestic issues, a vote-winning tactic that he looks set to continue.
“We will use our strength in parliament and our support in the country to challenge the Tories at every step,” he told The Guardian.
“Wherever we can, we will block their attempts to pay for tax cuts for the richest by making life worse for millions of people.
“There is a social agenda, investment in housing, health and social care and industrial needs.”
‘Ready for election’
Even harsh critics such as The Economist magazine have acknowledged Corbyn’s success, splashing the headline “Britain’s most likely next prime minister” in its latest leading article.
“Not even Jeremy Corbyn could quite picture himself as leader of the Labour Party when he ran for the job in 2015,” it said.
“After he became leader, few could see him surviving a general election. Now, with the Conservatives’ majority freshly wiped out and the prime minister struggling to unite her party around a single vision of Brexit, the unthinkable image of a left-wing firebrand in 10 Downing Street is increasingly plausible.”
Corbyn, who will speak on Wednesday — the conference’s final day — recently strengthened his hold over the party and his MPs, 80 per cent of whom supported a motion of no confidence in their leader last year.
Conference motions are expected to reduce the power of Labour MPs and members of the European Parliament, as “Corbynites” reinforce their control over the party’s chief administrative body, the National Executive Committee, with trade union members and party members set for a larger say.
The party has also reduced the threshold of MPs needed to support a potential leadership candidate, making it more difficult to keep far-left candidates off the ballot paper in future.
Corbyn, 68, writes in the conference programme that he will be fighting against a society where “opportunities are for a privileged few”, a populist message that has him banging on the gates of Downing Street.
Summing up the buoyant mood, he issued a warning to May, saying: “We are ready for an election.”
