Labour: Corbyn’s moderate tone surprises delegates

Yesterday, Tom Watson said the Labour Party should be about reforming not replacing capitalism. Today, in a speech much of which could’ve been delivered by Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn sounded a moderate tone. Some dissidents said they were pretty surprised to find there were quite a few lines they could clap.

They’re not convinced Team Corbyn have had a conversion. They still think the leadership is populated by dangerous Marxists. Today John McDonnell sang the Red Flag with the clenched fist. He’s spoken often over the years of being a Marxist but is now settling into a soothing routine which something of a cross between a super shrewd salesman and a bank manager.

There weren’t many MPs in the hall to hear the rampant clapping when Mr Corbyn thanked his mates on the Left who’d stepped up to take on shadow roles in Parliament when 63 Labour MPs walked out of his front bench team this summer. The rebuke to those who’d tried to topple him was clearly implied and his supporters took their cue.

Mr Corbyn wants some credible names to return to the front bench. But he wants to keep the mixture of new MPs and veterans from the Left who’ve been making him feel ‘amongst friends’ in the Shadow Cabinet. He rewarded them declaring them “our future” to more applause from delighted delegates.
All week, in a series of interviews, people have remarked on how Mr Corbyn is more relaxed in the role. Today he seemed to be enjoying the moment and at ease with an autocue machine that wasn’t part of his life until very recently.

After some reverses on NEC numbers which mean the governing committee of the Party remains finely balanced, Mr Corbyn returns to Westminster where he is surrounded by MPs who think he is an electoral catastrophe waiting to happen.

But his team will now work on plans to entrench his politics with more rule changes. When this conference next meets, Mr Corbyn could be standing in front of a hall even more in his own political image. The Centre Right managed to secure something like 50% of the constituency delegate positions this year. Next year many think they’ll be lucky to have 40%.

You could find senior union figures and MPs here this week who said, assuming no early election, Mr Corbyn could face a challenge in 2018. But given the number of unexpected events in recent politics that’s a long way out. With an increased mandate, Mr Corbyn has been strengthened in his job. One senior MP said after the speech: “This is his now. He has the Party. He owns the General Election result.”
Tom Watson was heckled by one Labour activist as he left the Conference Centre in Liverpool telling him to “support the democratically elected leader.” Earlier, on Sky News’ “All Out Politics,” Mr Watson’s one time friend, Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey condemned his old mate as having a “yesteryear” approach to politics. He even raised the prospect of Mr Watson re-testing his own mandate as deputy leader with Labour’s selectorate. As if they hadn’t had enough internal contests for now.