Jeremy Corbyn in the BBC canteen June 11th 2017
Now that Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the Labour party, I recall the time I chatted to him at the very peak of his power - 2 days after the 2017 UK General Election result.
I won't go into what Jezza achieved (or didn't achieve) in his 4 years in power other than to say they were probably the most tumultuous years in British politics - before COVID-19 beat all comers. I must admit I had secretly wondered whether his unexpected win in the Labour party leadership race in 2015, which was announced on the day of my own wedding, might radically shake up politics. Arguably for Labour it brought about the exact opposite result to what it had hoped for 5 years ago on that September day.
In fact everything about Jeremy Corbyn’s political career can be filed under ‘unexpected’. It would have been unexpected that a far left socialist politician would take and hold one of the wealthiest constituencies in Britain for almost 4 decades, Islington. It was not to be expected that JC would become a cult figure for Britain’s youth at the sprightly age of 65. No one could have foreseen - least of all Margaret Beckett who seconded him for the Labour leadership in 2015 - that he would brush aside all the other centrist candidates who had served under Labour’s most successful ever prime minister Tony Blair.
It was mildly unexpected tha-t Mr Corbyn would defy the will of the majority of his own party and be lukewarm at best towards Britain’s membership of the EU in the most divisive referendum ever staged in this country.
It was certainly unexpected that a famous White Stripes song would be converted into an anthem with Jeremy Corbyn's own name as the lyrics. And of course it wasn't to be expected that he would be sitting in the canteen of the BBC’s New Broadcasting House taking selfies with dozens of young people (not BBC journalists) at the post-show breakfast table for the Andrew Marr show 3 days after the polls closed in 2017 - see photo above.
He did not win that election but his party did considerably better than expected and prevented Theresa May from getting the overall majority that pundits and pollsters had predicted. It led to near paralysis in parliament for more than 2 years.
But there he was with his sidekick and political adviser Seumus Milne (son of former BBC Director General Alistair Milne) finishing off some eggs and toast (he doesn't eat meat) as a political whirlwind blew through Whitehall.
I sat down between the two men and introduced himself. He couldn't have been nicer to me. Unlike so many politicians, he didn't pretend to be my close friend or even be on his guard because I was a journalist but he did look me in the eye and answer off the record questions in a very relaxed and disarming way.
I asked him how he thought he’d get along with Donald Trump if he became prime minister, which didn't seem that ludicrous an idea that Sunday morning. I anticipated a mini rant about Mr Trump's xenophobic comments or some of his more controversial positions. As ever his response was unexpected.
‘I think we’d get along quite well,’ said a smiling Mr Corbyn (Mr Milne doesn't smile).
‘I think we’d both know exactly where we were coming from in political terms and respect each other for it.’
He then listed a few books from US authors, which he said I should read - about the American heartland not being as ‘red’ in the Republican and right wing sense as I would think. Being honest I can't recall the names of the authors.
Many a dog chewed on similar Corbyn dolls
We chatted about this and that and Seumus Milne gave me his mobile number and suggested they both come into the BBC Business unit to explain that Corbynism was no threat to companies. Mr Milne never responded to any of the 3 or 4 voicemail messages that I left him.
In political terms it was probably the high water mark for JC. His party’s collapse in the December 2019 election was unexpected. But the crowning moment in terms of things not to have been anticipated in his political career was being suspended and potentially being thrown out of the party he had led within a year of losing that election.
FIN
