The speech I’d like Jeremy Corbyn to make, one year on

Friends and comrades, soon enough it will be a year since our defeat on December 12th, 2019. A day, and a night, that we are going to remember for a long time.

I could say a lot now about that election, and the two years leading up to it. About how I was blown around by events, and about how many of us were blown around by events. How, after that glimpse of hope for those few weeks in 2017 we got so trapped, into negative patterns. And as leader, how I found it so hard to respond to some of the challenges I faced, in that hardest of roles.

It’s true, I never worked out what to say to people who accused me personally of being racist. And I never worked out how to rescue those who got stuck in the mud, that in the Labour Party we were too often slinging at each other. Perhaps most painfully, I think about how comrades I trusted, turned out to be incapable of that bit of self-restraint, that would stop genuine disagreements becoming abusive, and at how these failures could lend credibility to those discrediting our movement. This went up to the Shadow Cabinet level. It shouldn’t have been tolerated. I shouldn’t have tolerated it.

I could mention the manifesto, and the campaign, and that we failed to hold together a team to sell a really complicated, too complicated, and wide-ranging programme to the electorate. It was too much to sell, in the first place, but we still fell short. I needed to hold together the team we had in 2017, as much as possible. I couldn’t do it.

But mostly I would like everyone who supported me to stop for a moment. I’d like us to think about what we value most. We are in the middle of a pandemic and at the outset of what seems set to be a terrible recession. You will have to live in a post-pandemic world and some of you are near the beginning of your adult lives. I am receiving an MP’s salary. I will receive a pension. I own property in London. As I have always said, I am not the one really suffering in today’s climate. The economy has created so much inequality, and our welfare state is so inadequate.

I would suggest this — that we cannot afford to be continually furious at the current leadership of the Labour Party. We cannot afford to focus on individuals. As a movement we cannot spare the time to hate our internal opponents, and I know people have done wrong by us. But we can’t spare the time. But even as individuals — we can’t spare that time, either. I do not want to see “fighting funds” collecting thousands and thousands of pounds to fight Labour internal battles. I can’t stop you doing it, but you may need your own money, firstly. And secondly, if you have got money to donate, please, give it to people who are fighting for housing rights, or working in solidarity with the people who need every bit of help right now.

Tony Benn always told us one thing. Engage with the issues. Don’t be distracted by personalities. If we do this, we can find a way round our disagreements. No matter how much proof we see now, or even after January, we may never be able to prove our comrades wrong on Brexit. Let that go. Some of us will need to let membership of the party go, for a while. There are still so many things to do. We do need a new organisation, for working people to co-ordinate the campaigns and actions we need in this emerging new world. To work in solidarity with others, we cannot apply conditions. You didn’t have to like me, as Labour leader, to benefit from our solidarity now, or in the future.

Above all, remember we are advocates for peace and solidarity. It may be hard, but that is what motivates us. And yes, we do need to build the capacity to say “this is wrong.” But what gives us the moral authority to do this? It has to be earned. People need to trust us. Once we earn this trust, that we don’t instrument everything around our own social media personas, we have the chance to build the kind of networks that can withstand the attacks that will — inevitably- come from the privileged and insecure.

We can turn this around. Piece by piece. Step by step. As Billy Bragg said, ours is the green field and the factory floor. A socialism of small things. Thank you all, so much, for listening.