The media must give Jeremy Corbyn a fair hearing

The Labour leader's mandate is to oppose austerity, not rehabilitate Blairites suffering with post-election stress disorder

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attending a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally in August last year (Rex)

As a therapist, I’ve looked into the eyes of souls broken by right wing policies. When you see a teenage mother crack from the strain of living in a B&B because she couldn’t get a council flat near her family, or a father who is suicidal because he’s dependent on food banks to feed his children, even though he has a job, you learn to join the dots. For some, a £10 reduction in benefits can be the difference between eating or starving, being warm or cold, sanity or madness, living or dying.

While journalists camped outside Jeremy Corbyn’s office concocting ways the word “chaotic” and “turmoil” could be incorporated into any reshuffle announcement, real news, relevant to real people, went unreported in the bowels of parliament this week.

The Housing Bill, which will allow private developers to profit at taxpayers’ expense, went under the radar. Ian Duncan Smith also escaped scrutiny for failing to speak at a debate on the proposed slashing of universal tax credits, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned would leave 2.6million working families £1,600 a year worse off. Meanwhile, Cameron’s contempt for flood victims at PMQs was passed off as “a bit of artful banter”.

A year ago, a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned that the widening gap between rich and poor had stifled the British economy and that rising inequality knocked 9 percentage points off the UK’s growth. Yet, the Tories continue to punish the poor for the sins of the bankers (who now won’t face an inquiry into the culture that caused the financial crash). This week Dawn Amos, a mother with lung disease, received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions terminating her health benefits. It arrived on the day she died.

Had Michael Dugher’s “straight talking” involved summoning any of the above to demonstrate that Tory austerity is wrong headed, he would still be in the shadow cabinet. Instead, he pointed his guns at Jeremy Corbyn. The man whose mandate is to oppose austerity, not rehabilitate Blairites suffering with post-election stress disorder. The media diligently reported the apparent hypocrisy of Dugher being sacked for dissent by Corbyn, who himself voted against his party some 500 times. What the media neglected to clarify is that Corbyn was a back bencher, not a minister or shadow minister. It’s an important distinction.

Pat McFadden had to go because he didn’t get the link between a failed foreign policy that sanctions the killing of innocents abroad and national security. He exploited the barbarous Paris attacks to publicly score (misinformed) points against Jeremy Corbyn. Last year, the Global Terrorism Index reported that the number of terrorism fatalities had steadily grown since the Iraq war and the former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, said the Iraq invasion led to a huge increase in the terrorist threat to the UK.

Post 7/7, I saw people beaten up for “looking Muslim”. Social cohesion is sabotaged by the constant conflation of Islam with terrorism. Progressive politicians, like Corbyn, know that an alternative strategy is required, the logic for which is not objectively presented by the media.

Labour ends the week with a reinvigorated shadow cabinet, just in time to stand shoulder to shoulder with junior doctors next week. The Tories are wrong about the economy (inequality and social injustice stifle growth) and national security (bombing makes us more, not less, susceptible to terrorist attacks). Labour’s anti-austerity message is morally and economically sound. The integrity and sustainability of this country is dependent on Labour uniting to make that message heard and the media giving Jeremy Corbyn a fair hearing.