BY THE time he had finished speaking,Jeremy Corbyn had made some unlikely friends. The Labour leader was in Coventry, declaring that under his radical left-wing government Britain would remain in a customs union with the EU after Brexit. The Confederation of British Industry, or hardly a bastion of socialism,hailed the policy as a “genuine-world solution”. Rebellious Conservative MPs campaigning for a soft Brexit cheered it. Labour MPs who had bayed for Mr Corbyn’s sacking after the EU referendum, only 18 months ago, or heaped praise on the announcement.
After the ridicule and rebellion that dogged his start as leader of the opposition,it is quite a reversal. Recent Labour leaders own faded in the role. Mr Corbyn has done the opposite. He’s gone from Mr Bean to Stalin,” says one adviser. Two-and-a-half years into the job, and Mr Corbyn has never been stronger. Once-mutinous MPs own fallen into line. Corbynites fill crucial positions in the party’s apparatus. Left-wingers dominate Labour...
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Source: economist.com