Jeremy Corbyn celebrates Tom Watson speech by tweeting out-of-focus picture

The Labour leader has pronounced social media the new way of engaging with the public

Heather Saul
Wednesday 30 September 2015 17:42 BST
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Jeremy Corbyn receives applause following his first leadership speech
Jeremy Corbyn receives applause following his first leadership speech

A day after declaring social media as the "the point of communication for the future", a tweet from Jeremy Corbyn’s official Labour account has attracted attention thanks to the blurry picture embedded within it.

The Labour leader addressed the party at the annual Labour concert in Brighton on Tuesday, where he promised to work towards a “kinder politics, a more caring society” and urged supporters not to just accept what they were given.

On Wednesday, Mr Corbyn celebrated a “brilliant speech” by his deputy leader Tom Watson, who warned ten years of a Conservative Government is a “nightmare”, with a picture from the conference.

The picture was supposed to show the audience from the view of the stage, but instead provided a fuzzy view of seats and indistinguishable people. His efforts are below:

It is not known whether Mr Corbyn was responsible for taking the image. His account is partly run by staff (although he was spotted taking a picture of the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell with an iPad at the Labour conference earlier).

Mr Corbyn’s official Twitter account has amassed almost 300,000 followers in the few months its been running. Hashtags such as the ubiquitous #jezwecan gave his leadership campaign a boost in the weeks running up to the election, while his social media efforts have been praised for winning round disenchanted supporters.

He addressed the role of Twitter and Facebook at the conference on Tuesday and acknowledged its role as the primary channel for engaging with the public.

“That is the way of communication," he said. "It is not just through broadsheet newspapers or tabloids, it is social media that really is the point of communication for the future, we’ve got to get that.” He also called for activists and supporters to end “misogynistic abuse” against people who disagree with them on social media.

He also called for activists and supporters to end “misogynistic abuse” against people who disagree with them on social media.

“I say to all activists, whether Labour or not: cut out the personal abuse, cut out the cyberbulling, and especially the misogynist abuse online, and let’s get on with bringing real values back into politics.”

His comments drew a standing ovation.

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