THE 400-odd Corbyn supporters filling the conference hall of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow ahead of last night’s hustings had been drawn not just by his anti-austerity message, but “what’s behind it”, the Labour leader said.
In a rousing speech which ended in the sort of cheers and standing ovation reminiscent of Yes campaign rallies, Mr Corbyn said his policies on social justice and labour rights had appealed to voters disillusioned with the consensus of neo-con economics and young people “sick and tired of being told they won’t have what their parents’ generation had”.
The rhetoric has parallels with the groundswell of support which lured new voters to Bernie Sanders’ candidacy in the United States.
Read more: SNP would not be reliable allies for Labour, says Jeremy Corbyn
“It’s the excitement of a different way of doing things,” said Mr Corbyn. “It’s not just happening here; it’s happening in the United States, it’s happening in Europe, it’s happening all over the world.”
Earlier, Mr Corbyn had arrived at the Crowne Plaza to applause from around two dozen invited party members, telling them he wanted to end the “cheapskate economy” with a National Investment Bank that would plough £23 billion into Scottish small businesses and a living wage for all.
“When you go into a supermarket, there isn’t a separate aisle for the youth, with cheaper prices,” he said. “So let’s get away from this ridiculous idea that they deserve to earn less.
“The thing is, when you give ordinary working people a decent wage they tend to spend it in the economy. When you give tax relief to the wealthy it tends to end up somewhere else, like the Cayman Islands.”
Among the audience were former Labour loyalists who had abandoned the party in the Blair era, but had finally been lured back by Mr Corbyn’s brand left-wing leadership.
Read more: SNP would not be reliable allies for Labour, says Jeremy Corbyn
Jim Matheson, 48, secretary of the Campaign for Socialism (CFS) Momentum Glasgow, said he had first become a fan of Mr Corbyn more than a decade ago when he watched the rebel MP give a speech in Glasgow Green in 2003 against the Iraq invasion.
Mr Matheson said: “I had been a Labour party member since I was 18, but that was it for me – I left after we invaded Iraq. I re-joined last November after he became leader.
“The policies he promotes are the policies I support.”
Mr Matheson, a wheelchair-user, said he was particularly impressed by Mr Corbyn’s stance on protecting the disabled from the brunt of welfare cuts and his commitment to re-nationalise the railways.
Shug Kennedy, 56, from Barrowfield in Glasgow said Mr Corbyn was “the leader we’ve been waiting for”.
“I’ve been waiting a lifetime for someone like him. Tony Benn almost got there but now this is it.
Read more: SNP would not be reliable allies for Labour, says Jeremy Corbyn
“It’s the basic humanity of the man that appeals to me. I’m a working class boy from the east end of Glasgow and this is the first person who really speaks my language.”
In the hustings at the SECC, the loudest applause was for Corbyn. However, mirroring the bitter split at national level, there was a vocal minority of the grassroots angry that Mr Corbyn’s leadership was – in one non-Corbynista’s words - “sending the party down a political cul-de-sac”.
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