Local election results in the capital show Labour’s vote holding up,but Zac Goldsmith believes he gains from linking his main opponent to his party leader
The emergence of a mysterious list of Labour MPs ranked according to their fondness for party leader Jeremy Corbyn adds a minor but entertaining recent dimension to the large and rather malodorous red herring that is Corbyn’s relationship with his party’s London mayor candidate Sadiq Khan. The document places Khan in the 36-strong “hostile” group despite the Tooting MP having helped Corbyn enter the leadership race final spring by “lending” him his nomination vote. Khan’s Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith has been trying to exploit this connection for months, going on unendingly about a dastardly “Khan-Corbyn experiment” to be inflicted the capital if the Labour man wins. Oh, and the whiff of rotten fish. The backing of some (though not all) Corbyn supporters certainly helped Khan beat Tessa Jowell to become his party’s candidate and perhaps he anticipated at least some some of that when he decided to back Corbyn out. But he’s a very different political being,his campaign could not be more independent of Corbyn’s operation and Corbyn will have no control over him at all if he becomes mayor. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com