The Corbyn Effect: Survey Shows Huge Support in Labour Party for Its Leader

Jeremy Corbyn appears to be reshaping the U.K. Labour Party, with a survey showing “overwhelming support for him [and] a decisive shift to the left.”

The Guardian “interviewed Labour secretaries, chairs, other office holders and members from more than 100 of the 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales,” and found that “almost every constituency party across the country we contacted reported doubling, trebling, quadrupling or even quintupling membership, and a revival of branches that had been moribund for years and close to folding.”

The study reports that membership has jumped from 201,293 on May 6, 2015, the day before the general election, to 388,407 on Sunday.

From The Guardian:

The survey found:

The rise in membership has been uneven across the country. In contrast with steep rises in London and elsewhere in England and Wales, the rises in Scotland have been relatively modest, ominous for the party’s hopes in May’s Scottish parliamentary election.

Members, in spite of unhappiness with public splits within the PLP, say there is no appetite for deselection of MPs. But some acknowledge that proposed boundary changes in 2018 could result in de-facto deselection.

Returning members, who had left Labour mainly in protest over the 2003 Iraq invasion, are making an immediate impact, partly because they are familiar with the rules.

Both returning members and new ones tend to be mainly leftwing. There are few reports of attempted infiltration from hard-left groups.

Read the full article here.

SEE ALSO: Truthdigger of the Week: Jeremy Corbyn, Fighter for Social Justice, Peace and Human Rights

–Posted by Roisin Davis