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In reply to the discussion: Corbyn on ballot. [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And this has nothing to do with Jeremy Corbyn seeking to "maintain his position".
Corbyn, whatever else you can say about him, is probably the most egoless political figure in the English-speaking world.
What he is protecting is democracy within the Labour Party-the right of the membership of the party to have a real say in who leads the party and what it stands for, rather than the choice of leader being determined solely by the MPs(who would, if they had their way, guarantee that no one to the left of Yvette Cooper-and if they REALLY had their way, no one to the left of Liz Kendall or professional poorbasher Rachel Reeves)would be allowed onto the leadership ballot at all, thus making the leadership contest meaningless.
Corbyn is defending the rank-and-file, who no longer want the party to be Blairite, against the MPs, the only people in the entirety of the party who want Labour to stay within millimetres of the Tories on the issues(and who, in some cases, want the party to be even further right than it was in 2015, calling on Labour to take a "no new taxes" pledge and support the benefits cap and the Tory "budget charter"-i.e., thus abandoning what were, after the 2015 election, the only remaining meaningful differences between Labour and the Tories). The only way he could do this was to insist the he be guaranteed a place on the leadership ballot as incumbent, as the party rules clearly guarantee.
BTW, a new IPSOS/MORI poll has just been released showing Labour five points ahead of the Tories, 38% to 33%, with the UKIP vote down from 15% in the 2015 election to only 7% now. A rational group pf Labour MPs would take that as a sign that they should stop trying to depose their leader.