Jeremy Corbyn: How well has he done in his first 100 days as Labour leader?

Unlike David Cameron and Manchester United, he has avoided humiliation in Europe

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (Getty Images)

The Right Honourable Jeremy Corbyn marks his 100th day as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition on Monday. So how is he doing?

This newspaper, unlike most, welcomed his election as a breath of fresh air and a chance to shake up the assumptions of what is and is not possible in politics. It was not as if British politics was so perfect, we said, that some creative disruption was bound to be a bad thing.

Much of his short time as leader has been overshadowed by speculation about how long he might last in the job. Like football, politics is a hard game. And, like José Mourinho, Mr Corbyn stands or falls by results.

Yet Mr Corbyn’s results from the dugout have been rather better than his detractors have acknowledged. Yes, he lost the vote on air strikes against Isis in Syria, although his position was, in our view, the right one. But it was Mr Corbyn who questioned Britain’s closeness to the Saudi regime (highlighted by Iona Craig today), with its unlovely human rights record. He deserves some of the credit, therefore, for the Government’s welcome decision in October to cancel the Saudi prisons contract.

He made the right decision, during the Labour leadership election, to oppose the welfare Bill, in defiance of acting leader Harriet Harman’s instructions, and he led the opposition to the cuts in tax credits that helped to force George Osborne’s retreat, however temporary, in the Autumn Statement.

Under his leadership, Labour won the Oldham by-election decisively, seeing off a challenge from Ukip that was widely overestimated, including by this newspaper. All the while, new members have been flowing in through the party’s turnstiles, helping to pay off its debts and reviving it as a campaigning organisation at the grass roots.

What is more, unlike David Cameron and Manchester United, Mr Corbyn has avoided humiliation in Europe. True, Mr Corbyn himself has been no great admirer of the European Union, but he has allowed the Labour Party to present a united front in arguing for Britain’s continued membership, and Alan Johnson, probably the most persuasive advocate of that cause, has been given free rein.

Although the 100 days mark is an arbitrary point at which to make a judgement, these are not the achievements of a sure-fire loser. Of course, some aspects of his leadership have been disappointing, and our rivals in the press have not been slow to point them out. Our own opinion poll last week found that, while more voters have a positive view of him than of Ed Miliband at the same stage of his leadership, more also have a negative opinion. The best that can be said is that he has made an impression, and that his supporters are more enthusiastic than they ever were about his predecessor.

However, we should admit the possibility that doing politics differently might mean there is another way to assess Mr Corbyn. Surely we should judge him by the case he makes against the Government and the quality of the alternative he offers.

These are early days, but we can already see the outlines of a big argument that might shape politics over the next five years. The tax credits battle could be the harbinger of the struggle to come. Last week saw the publication of official figures showing that wealth became more unequal towards the end of the last parliament. After years of surprisingly little change, it seems that the gap between rich and poor really is widening now.

That is why it is even more urgent that Mr Osborne’s plan to cut the incomes of the working poor through universal credit should be resisted.

The war against growing inequality is one for which Mr Corbyn is well suited. Let us not measure his leadership in days but weigh it in substance.