Is there room for an independent Jeremy Corbyn in British politics?

An inspirational figure to many on Labour’s hard left, who revered him with a cult-like devotion, Jeremy Corbyn will struggle for relevance without a party line to kick against, says Sean O’Grady

Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: ‘No one – least of all Theresa May – thought Jezza much of a campaigner, but it turned out mixing with the public was the only thing he was good at’ (Getty)

Jeremy Corbyn is making what feels like a final and irrevocable break from his old party by standing as an independent, and against an official Labour candidate – an offence that means automatic expulsion from the party he has represented in the Commons since 1983 and been a member of since age 16.

It is worth taking a moment to reflect on what an extraordinary denouement this is. After all, he was presented to the electorate as Labour’s de facto nominee to be prime minister in two general elections – and in 2017, he came pretty close to ousting Theresa May, with the biggest increase in Labour’s share of the vote since 1945.

He was elected by a landslide of the membership in not one, but two leadership elections – in the first, in 2016, he polled more first-preference votes than all his rivals combined. And he came from nowhere: he was the Buggins turn token candidate of the left, never expected to win. Indeed, he couldn’t get the nominations to stand until a few Labour centrists, such as Margaret Beckett, decided to “lend” him their signatures just so the Left would, as usual, be ritually humiliated. Instead, it was the likes of Beckett who had to live with the consequences of their arrogant indulgence.