02 Informed


Jeremy Corbyn Interview


Tim Dawson with Jeremy Corbyn in Te Chapel café bar Social media changed the game


Until 22 months ago, Jeremy Corbyn was a regular at NUJ national executive council meetings. Tere are Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Scotish Nationalists among the officers of the NUJ’s cross-party Parliamentary Group, but in recent times it was always the member for Islington North, as chair and secretary of the group, who was one of most generous with his time. Unsurprisingly, since September 2015 his atentions have been directed elsewhere. However the Labour Party leader returned to speak to members of the NEC before their meeting, tried out the NUJ’s new cafe bar and gave me a few moments of his time. His apparel is slightly more


conventionally smart than it was, he arrives in the chauffeured car of the opposition leader rather than his bicycle and perhaps there is a hint of wariness that I don’t remember in earlier


encounters. Fundamentally, however, he remains the same man he has been during his 34 years in Parliament. Quite what that quality is defies easy


generalisation. Is it that he appears the resolute everyman with a decency that carries a surprising air of authenticity among the debased currency of professional politicians? Whatever it is, he atracted more new votes to the Labour Party than any leader since 1945, as he is keen to explain. “I’m obviously profoundly upset that


we did not win,” he says. “I always felt, though, that we had strong support from people who were fundamentally alienated from politics and amongst young people.” For most pundits, it wasn’t until the BBC’s exit poll that they suspected anything but calamity for Labour. Corbyn says he anticipated a different outcome much earlier. “I realised the day aſter the election was called there was


something strong in the air. At a couple of hours’ notice we had a street rally in Croydon and 500 people came.” Voter registration was a key focus of the Labour campaign – nearly two million voters were added to the roll in a mater of weeks. “Te manifesto was the fundamental game changer, though,” says Corbyn, describing it as a historic and readable document. It has gone to three reprints and Corbyn is still handing out copies whenever the chance arises. Some of his early milestones on route


to Parliament are well known – Haringey councillor, trade union official and Bennite campaigner. Tat he once worked as a journalist is less celebrated. When a youngster he delivered the Sunday papers on his bicycle and later he filed copy for the Newport and Market Drayton Advertiser in Shropshire. “I recently went to see the Shropshire Star [which now owns the title] and they had dug out some copies. Tey missed one


Natasha Hirst


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