“Tickets for the meeting are almost sold out,” according to the organisers. “Corbyn is a big draw.”
Your Party was established last year amid internal rancour and paralysing disorganisation. In May, with 70 council seats being contested across the borough, Your Party managed to field just a single council candidate in the Croydon local elections. They finished 16th of the candidates in Thornton Heath ward. And now it is uncertain whether they will have a candidate for Mayor of London in 2028.
From the initial 700,000 people who expressed interest in joining the fledgling party of the left, Your Party membership has settled down to around 50,000 nationally, as despite having two MPs – parliamentary leader Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South – doubts linger about the viability of Your Party as a political force. The Greens have more than 210,000 members in England and Wales, and eight Croydon councillors.
According to one of the organisers of tomorrow night’s event in Croydon, “I anticipate that Jeremy will speak not only about the future of Your Party but also his views on domestic and international issues.”
In 2015, Corbyn launched his Labour leadership campaign in the same hall at Ruskin House. An interview with his long-standing colleague, Dennis Skinner, re-emerged this week in which the then MP for Bolsover offered his views on his friend’s shortcomings, and also on his ability and integrity.
Authentic: former MP Dennis Skinner
Skinner, the quick-witted and sharp-tongued former coal miner, was MP for Bolsover for 49 years, from 1970 until he retired from the Commons in 2019. He is 94 years old.
“I don’t think Corbyn’s the best leader ever,” said Skinner just ahead of his retirement.
“I appreciate that he’s not the best at appealing to a lot of demographics. He’s crap with soundbytes; not good at speaking straight to camera,” said “the Beast of Bolsover”, the nickname given to him by the right-wing press during his time as an MP.
“[He’s] Better in real situations with real people. I appreciate that he’s not got a great deal of, what would you call it, ‘zing’.
“I don’t agree with him on everything by any means. Still, you know something I know?
“If Labour lose the [2019] election, Jeremy Corbyn will probably go back to being a local MP. He’ll carry on holding speakers up for people at meetings, and helping people with their chairs and thanking people for making the sandwiches.
“He’ll carry on having talks and doing constituency surgeries and attending debates and asking questions and campaigning on various issues and staying behind to carry on talking about stuff with ordinary people after the event’s finished…
“He’s not going to swan off to a career of after-dinner speaking and corporate events and non-executive directorships and consultancies. He’s not going to edit the Evening Standard. It’s not his personal ambition that’s brought him here…
“The fact that this man is considered unelectable when the alternatives are as they are is itself an indictment of our society.”
Tomorrow night’s meeting at Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, Croydon CR0 1BD, is open to the public and is free to attend, though places are limited.
The event is due to begin at 7.30pm. “Arrive early if you want sandwiches, samosas and Gaza Cola.”
Tickets can be reserved on Eventbrite using the QR code on the poster above. It can also be watched online via Zoom.
Expelled by Labour and given a number for Samaritans
Corbyn recounted how David Evans, the then Gen Sec of the Labour Party (and someone with close connections to Croydon politics) had written to him saying, “If you’re upset about this, here’s the number for Samaritans.”
The Andrew Fisher Interview is part of our Under The Flyover podcast strand. Click here to listen to the interview in full (free for paying subscribers)
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
Read more: The Fraud: how Reed’s Labour spied on Croydon councillors
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