Jeremy Corbyn didn’t win but he proved that a good salesman can make retail politics work

by Rashmee

Posted on June 9, 2017



If you didn’t know better, it certainly sounds like Jeremy Corbyn led his Labour Party to a stonking victory in the June 8 snap election.

He did and he didn’t.

Labour won enough seats and enough of a share of the vote to challenge Theresa May’s high-handed control of the country and its future.

And yet the narrative is all about Labour’s expectations-defying performance. Without wanting to rain on Mr Corbyn’s parade – he has done a brilliant job offering a positive vision of hope – it’s a bit like Donald Trump at a leaders summit. If Mr Trump shows up, stays on script and doesn’t elbow  anyone aside, he is seen to have been a success.

So too Mr Corbyn’s Labour Party, which was tearing itself apart just a few months ago, which was unable to offer strong opposition in parliament, and which seemed in a torpor.

When Mrs May announced the election seven weeks ago, it seemed laughable to think that Labour could offer a credible change.

But it has won 13 million votes, a pretty good haul compared to the Conservative Party’s 13.5 million.

Labour won in marginal seats and won its best share of the vote since 2001 – beating Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and Ed Miliband in 2005, 2010, and 2015.

And it showed that retail politics can work if the salesman knows what he’s doing.


Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK

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