UK Edition
Jeremy Corbyn may have held centre stage at Labour’s Brighton Love-In yesterday, embracing not just his adoring multitudes in the conference hall but the entire country.
But, even as he spoke, repeatedly stressing - through his use of the word "WE" - that Labour is now a loving collective preaching a “unified socialist message”, some of his more zealous followers were living up to their well-deserved reputation as, well, nutters.
They hail, it will come as no surprise to students of the beast to learn, from the Scottish Labour Party, which is locked in a vicious battle that has escaped the notice of all but a handful of Scots. At stake is a replacement for Kezia Dugdale, who resigned as leader last month.
Richard Leonard, an English-born trades union apparatchik, who has risen without trace after several decades in the People’s Party, and is a fervent supporter of Mr Corbyn, is in the corner of the deepest red. Pitched against him is Anas Sarwar, the moderate but hugely ambitious dentist son of Mohammed, the millionaire former MP and one-time governor of the Punjab.
The former has been attacked for sounding what he is – of Northern English extraction, whereas the latter has been traduced for being what he is, too, – very rich and who, furthermore, sends his children to a fee-paying school.
All of that said, Labour Party dirty tricks reached a new low – or high, depending on your viewpoint – during the Brighton conference. Alex Rowley, the current deputy leader, who is acting as a supposedly neutral stand-in until the leadership election is concluded, appears to have been outed as an avowed Corbynista-supporting backer of Mr Leonard.
The transcript of an alleged tape-recording appeared in the Sun newspaper which suggested that not only was Mr Leonard the man for him, but that dirty work had also long been afoot to rid Scottish Labour of Ms Dugdale, many months before she eventually resigned.
This brought a swift response from Jackie Baillie, one of Mr Sarwar’s main supporters, who accused Mr Rowley of “hypocrisy”, adding that party members would be appalled to learn that there had also been a plot involving Mr Leonard to replace Ms Dugdale.
This brought an even swifter rejoinder from the Corbynista, sorry Leonard, camp in the shape of an email which abandoned any attempt at diplomatic, never mind comradely, language in its subject heading which poured the heaviest of Scottish scorn on her complaint.
It read: “Coment (sic) on latest jackie baillie pish".
A campaign spokesman added: "If there were any attempts to undermine Kezia – they did not involve Richard and he knew nothing of them. Any statements that he did are completely false.”
Needless to say, this did nothing to calm the fevered brows of the two armed camps as they headed home from the bars of Brighton last night. Nor were there any satisfactory answers to several questions.
Does the Rowley Tape exist? If so, who did the recording? Mr Rowley will only say that he had had a "private conversation" with a student activist.
Was this a supporter of Mr Sarwar? If so, did he/she pass it on to the newspaper?
And last but not least: as he sets out to conquer Britain, has even Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran of any number of internecine Labour wars, any idea what an absolute shower Scottish Labour continues to be?
Corbyn will never conquer Britain with this lot behind him