The Jeremy Corbyn “project” will continue even if Labour loses the election, the party’s campaign chief has said.
Speaking ahead of the Labour leader addressing a general election rally in Glasgow, Ian Lavery suggested it was “only the beginning” of “changing politics in Britain”.
Sky News later reported the MP for Wansbeck in the North East of England, who is a shadow minister and is organising Labour’s General Election campaign, was referring to Corbyn’s “transformative” policies.
Corbyn is standing on a distinctly left-wing ticket that includes higher taxes on the wealthy and re-nationalising industries, including the railways.
The parliamentary Labour Party has been divided since Corbyn won the leadership election in 2015, with many of his critics fearing his policies will see the party return to the political wilderness.
But Corbyn’s supporters have been buoyed by Labour narrowing the Tory poll lead from 20-plus points to as little as five points with less than two weeks to polling day.
When asked by HuffPost UK last year whether he would stand down as leader if the party lost the next general election, the Islington North MP said it was in the end up to party members to decide who led them, and that it was not “inevitable” he would stand down.
BuzzFeed News quoted Lavery saying:
“People don’t want austerity, people have had enough of cuts. Today’s economy is completely fractured – it’s broken, it only serves the rich and the wealthy and we’ll change that.
“We want change that and we’re in the process – it will be a long, long, long process, of changing politics in Britain. Whatever happens at the election isn’t the end of the Corbyn project, it’s only the beginning of the Corbyn project.”