Is there room for an independent Jeremy Corbyn in British politics?

An inspirational figure to many on Labour’s hard left, who revered him with a cult-like devotion, Jeremy Corbyn will struggle for relevance without a party line to kick against, says Sean O’Grady

Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: ‘No one – least of all Theresa May – thought Jezza much of a campaigner, but it turned out mixing with the public was the only thing he was good at’ (Getty)

Jeremy Corbyn is making what feels like a final and irrevocable break from his old party by standing as an independent, and against an official Labour candidate – an offence that means automatic expulsion from the party he has represented in the Commons since 1983 and been a member of since age 16.

It is worth taking a moment to reflect on what an extraordinary denouement this is. After all, he was presented to the electorate as Labour’s de facto nominee to be prime minister in two general elections – and in 2017, he came pretty close to ousting Theresa May, with the biggest increase in Labour’s share of the vote since 1945.

He was elected by a landslide of the membership in not one, but two leadership elections – in the first, in 2016, he polled more first-preference votes than all his rivals combined. And he came from nowhere: he was the Buggins turn token candidate of the left, never expected to win. Indeed, he couldn’t get the nominations to stand until a few Labour centrists, such as Margaret Beckett, decided to “lend” him their signatures just so the Left would, as usual, be ritually humiliated. Instead, it was the likes of Beckett who had to live with the consequences of their arrogant indulgence.

The relatively lacklustre people Corbyn thrashed in that one member one vote contest were Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, all now powerful, and the latter two, we assume, about to be cabinet ministers in the next Labour government. How easily we forget “Cobynmania”, his strange charisma, near-cult status, and “magic grandpa” commanding the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2017.

No one, least of all prime minister Theresa May, thought Jezza much of a campaigner – but it turned out mixing with the public was the only thing he was good at, and something that the “Maybot” evidently found excruciating.

It is said here without irony that Corbyn was an inspirational figure to many, and his appeal – part romantic, part populist, part cynical – was real enough. Even now, the left looks back on the 2017 general election with wistful thoughts of what would have been, if treachery in his own party and the wicked Tory media hadn’t just stopped him from becoming the country’s first truly radical socialist prime minister. We can almost still hear the chants of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn”, the anthem of his private army of supporters in Momentum and, indeed, across the country.

Now? Well, a much denuded figure, a revolutionary only in the sense of the complete reversal of his fortunes. Maybe it was always inevitable that this spiky old Bennite would fall foul of the Starmerites, especially on the issue of antisemitism in the party, but his stubborn refusal to accept in full the verdict of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission report played straight into his enemies’ hands. He had plenty enough to choose from, but he could always make himself his own worst enemy.

And so Corbyn’s days as a Labour MP are over, and the biggest winner in this is Keir Starmer and the now-dominant social democrats. When the Tories throw the name Corbyn at Labour, as they still insist on doing, Starmer and his colleagues can point out, with an air of weary insouciance, that Corbyn isn’t a Labour candidate nor even a party member. To the present leadership, Corbyn’s exile is a powerful symbol of “Changed Labour”, the informal name of their party, and of a past that makes them shudder even to contemplate.

If Corbyn does succeed in scraping back as the independent socialist member for Islington North, he won’t be able to make that much trouble for Starmer, who will quite possibly be armed with a majority of 200-plus, elected on the back of remarkable efforts to rebuild the party in four short years.

Soon, Corbyn will be back where he most likes to be, as a dissident backbencher, but with the added advantage to all concerned that he will no longer be troubled by even nominal loyalty to a centrist leadership he despises.

There is a wonderful story around about the phone going in Corbyn’s house during the Blair administration. It was a Labour whip calling – an unusual thing, but the government was in a tight spot and wanted to get the arithmetic of the voting in the Commons right. So the leadership reached out to Jeremy, not in the hope of him supporting Blair – but just to confirm that Jeremy would, as usual, be voting against the Labour government. The answer was in the affirmative. It was a brief conversation. Now, Corbyn will be completely liberated from even nominal obligations to conform.

Though never a fan, there is something I would say for having Corbyn’s voice in the next parliament, simply on the grounds of plurality. If Starmer does indeed command a crushing majority, and the Tories are smashed, then parliament will be a better place for some different perspectives and passionate debate to break up the relentless, densely formed centrist consensus.

It may be, in another strange twist of fate, that Corbyn will form a parliamentary group of two with another estranged ex-Labour MP, Diane Abbott – though she seems to evoke more affection in party circles. Jeremy and Diane had a brief relationship in the late 1970s, and it might be nice to see them back together again in a political partnership.

At any rate, given his profile, local following and vast majority, we haven’t heard the last of Jeremy Corbyn. He could quite easily, in similar circumstances, emulate the way Ken Livingstone became an independent candidate and beat the official Labour man, Frank Dobson, to become mayor of London in 2000.

On balance, though some of his views are, to say the least, problematic, it is probably good for democracy to have Corbyn around parliament. Never glad confident morning in Glasto again, though, for this lost leader.