Election 2017: Jeremy Corbyn supporters plan Labour victory party
Result is not a 'foregone conclusion,' event organiser tells The Independent
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Your support makes all the difference.Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn have arranged a victory party in anticipation of a Labour win in June’s general election.
More than 800 people are signed up to the Facebook event, with a further 2,400 registering their interest to attend.
A description of the event reads: "Comrades! Compatriots! Followers of the cause! Come far and wide to join us. We're having a real Jeremy Corbyn victory party to toast our success!"
The party is being hosted by the Grand Marshal Corbyn's Patriotic Meme Collective, a pro-Labour campaign group led by Cambridge University student Josh Jackson.
He told The Independent the victory party is not a joke and believes the election result is by no means a foregone conclusion.
“The event is very serious. It’s not a foregone conclusion, a lot of Labour’s policies are very popular and when you contrast it with what the Tories are offering today in their manifesto, there’s a genuine contrast and a real choice for voters,” he said.
“When the media write Jeremy off and write Labour off, I think it can have an opposite effect.”
The 19-year-old set up the page to encourage young people to engage with politics and register to vote ahead of 8 June’s ballot. He believes memes are a useful tool to clarify important issues.
“This is a new form of communication, it makes things easier to understand for those who don't necessarily grapple with high political theory, it can clarify the issues, it puts things in a less serious light, in a more humorous tone,” he said.
The victory party will be held at the Red Lion pub in Westminster, the same venue where the Labour leader celebrated his leadership victory in 2015.
When asked what would happen in the event of a Conservative victory, Mr Jackson said the party would go ahead as planned.
“It's never a bad day to have a 'Tories Out' protest. Either way it'll be a party, to celebrate Jeremy's victory or to celebrate our continuing struggle against this regressive Tory government,” he said.
“And in the eventuality we do lose - although I am very certain we will win - I could always change the name to 'Jeremy Corbyn Moral Victory Party'.”
It came as Labour made further gains in the polls, as support for the party reached its highest point of the general election campaign so far.
The Tories are now on 45 per cent, down four points since last week, while Labour was on 32, up one point - leaving Theresa May's party with a 13 point lead.
The YouGov poll, conducted for The Times, was taken on 16 and 17 May, when Labour's manifesto was making headlines.
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