Corbyn at bay

JUST about every week these days seems worse than the one before for Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader’s response to the killing by a drone of Mohammed Emwazi, a British Islamic State terrorist known as Jihadi John, was to say he should have been tried. He criticised a shoot-to-kill policy against terrorists. He dealt with debate on renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent by appointing Ken Livingstone, a former London mayor and known opponent, to co-chair a review—without even telling Maria Eagle, his shadow defence minister, who is pro-Trident. His reply to David Cameron’s defence-review statement (see article) was rambling and irrelevant, including calls for human-rights advisers in every British embassy and praise for Britain’s peace-building academics.

As one Labour MP sums up the situation, the party lost the election in May mainly because voters had doubts about its fitness to run the economy. That view has not changed. But after Mr Corbyn’s latest shenanigans, voters are now also concerned that Labour would be unsafe in the even more crucial area of national security.

All this is coming to a head over the issue of parliamentary authorisation for the bombing of IS in Syria. Mr Corbyn, a former chairman of the Stop the War coalition, has repeatedly opposed Western military intervention on the grounds that it does more harm than good. Despite being a serial Labour rebel most of his life, he has also talked of imposing a three-line whip against Mr Cameron’s planned vote on Syria. Since several Labour MPs have made clear their backing for a Syrian campaign, Mr Corbyn has now summoned a shadow cabinet meeting to discuss the matter and invited his MPs to listen to lobbying by their constituents.

Many Labour MPs, only a tiny number of whom voted for Mr Corbyn, are in despair. Several say he has proved a worse leader than they expected. His lack of support from his own benches has become increasingly obvious in the silences that greet his appearances in the House of Commons. One backbencher says Mr Corbyn’s previous calls for MPs to vote with their consciences ought to point to a free vote on Syria. But, she adds, he will lose either way: if he backs down and allows a free vote, he will look weak, but if he sticks to a whipped vote, several MPs, including some shadow ministers, will rebel.

The problem facing moderate Labour MPs is what they can do about it. The party electorate chose Mr Corbyn by a landslide in September. Early talk of ousting him has faded, not least because the numbers suggest it might not succeed. A YouGov poll in the Times on November 24th found that 66% of current party members thought that Mr Corbyn was doing a good job—even more than voted for him in September. And this result came although half of party members also believed he was unlikely ever to become prime minister.

Some Labour MPs fret that the longer Mr Corbyn and his team remain, the stronger the grip of the far left over the party will become. A few fear a campaign to deselect outspoken critics of the leader. But what could concentrate minds even more is the expectation that under Mr Corbyn many are destined to lose their seats anyway. Next week’s Oldham by-election will be an early test. Others point to the likelihood of more Labour losses next May in Scotland, in local elections and possibly in London’s mayoral race.

Lord Reid, an old bruiser who was both defence and home secretary under Tony Blair and finds Mr Corbyn’s leadership neither competent, nor coherent, nor sensible, says that Labour moderates will have to fight to wrench the party back from the far left, just as his generation did after 1979. He may be right. But the sad truth for today’s young Labour MPs is that it then took the party 18 years to win another election.