Why Jeremy Corbyn May Be The Best Thing Since Clement Attlee | Damian McBride

“To understand Jeremy Corbyn, you need to understand Holloway, the stretch of the A1 from Highgate to Highbury that he has represented in Parliament for three decades.

Forget the name of his constituency – Islington North – and forget every stereotype about poetry recitals and posh restaurants that you associate with that London borough. Holloway is an entirely different beast. From the massive Andover Estate, described as a ‘dump’ by Ann Widdecombe, to the huge Wetherspoon pub serving pints from 8am, this is not the gentrified Islington made famous by Tony and Cherie Blair.

Corbyn’s is the smallest constituency in Britain, but one of the most densely packed. More than 100,000 people live in an area the size of 1,000 football pitches, the best of which is managed by Arsenal Football Club, the new Labour leader’s most high-profile constituent.

Despite their similar populations, you could fit Corbyn’s Islington North inside David Cameron’s rural Witney seat 100 times over. In Witney, 93 per cent of the population define themselves as White British. In Islington North, fewer than half do. Just one in 250 of David Cameron’s constituents is black; for Corbyn, it is one in seven.

Corbyn was a radical socialist before he set foot in Holloway in his early 20s, but nothing he has seen in his years as its MP has softened his views. When opposing the Iraq War, he only had to look at the impact it was having on levels of alienation and extremism among the 10 per cent of his constituents who follow Islam, many at the notorious Finsbury Park Mosque.

He believes in the redistribution of wealth and increased investment in schools, transport, healthcare and housing because these are the needs he sees every day.

Before the General Election, many of my fellow Holloway residents were scathing about Ed Miliband and fearful of him taking office, but ask them how they would vote, and the answer was unanimous: ‘Labour.’ Why? ‘It’s Jeremy. He’s proper Labour.’ Proper Labour: the party established to represent the workers against the vested interests at the top.

Corbyn’s critics scorn the idea that Labour lost the Election because it was not Left-wing enough. But most ordinary voters had no idea what Miliband stood for. They did not see a socialist firebrand; they saw a chocolate soldier, who prevaricated over everything from his television image to his stance on the deficit.

By contrast, Corbyn’s undoubted appeal comes from the fact that he is principled, honest and authentic: he knows what and who he stands for, and says it loud and proud. When Ed Miliband said after his 2010 election: ‘We can’t be imprisoned by the focus groups – politics has to be about leadership or it’s about nothing’, no one believed he meant it. If Corbyn said the same, you can bet they would.

But he faces a rocky ride. Dozens of MPs are already disgracefully ignoring the democratic process and lining up to destabilise their new leader. The only way Corbyn can succeed is by maintaining his genuine voice and hoping that the majority of British people see the country more like the residents of Holloway than the residents of Witney: a country with deep social and economic problems, and massive challenges for public services, which cannot be fixed by more of the same.

The last Labour leader to represent an inner London seat, indeed the last leader of any major party to do so, was in his 60s by the time he became Prime Minister. He was unfashionable, disdainful of the media and he stood on a platform that promoted peace and investment in public services and housing, even with the country facing massive debts.

Clement Attlee went on to be Labour’s greatest Prime Minister. And while few may believe that Jeremy Corbyn can follow in his footsteps as he slips into the leader’s shoes today, one thing is for sure: He comes from the right place.”