In May we might find out if Corbyn is the liability for Labour the Tories hope he is

In May we might find out if Corbyn is the liability for Labour the Tories hope he is

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The London Mayoral election might help determine if Corbyn is the toxic liability for the Labour Party the Tories hope he is and many in Labour fear he is

Looking at the above tweets it is clear that the Tory plan for winning the London Mayoral contest is to portray Sadiq Khan as Corbyn’s man in London. This makes sense given the dire personal polling Corbyn has, coupled with some of his more interesting policy positions and comments should be a negative for Khan.

Cameron then upped the ante as it were, by saying Londoners will become Corbyn ‘lab rats’ if Sadiq Khan becomes Mayor, that comment earned the Prime Minister the wrath of Khan, though it probably betrayed Khan’s concern that the attacks might have an impact.

The Tories have made several unpopular missteps since winning a majority last May, something an effective opposition would have exploited  just like they should be exploiting Cameron’s EU referendum difficulties. The YouGov EU referendum poll that made painful reading for Cameron, still had the Tories with a double digit lead. All of this could be lulling the Tories into a false sense of security about the next general election, where on current boundaries, a swing of 0.44% could deny the Tories a majority.

Simply not being Jeremy Corbyn might not be enough for the Tories to win a majority in 2020, the toxic Corbyn meme could well be this parliament’s idée fixe like the last parliament’s idée fixe was a guaranteed hung parliament in 2015.

If Khan wins with a bigger than anticipated majority in May, then we might conclude that the attacks on Corbyn have no impact, just like they didn’t in the Oldham West & Royton by election which Nigel Farage dubbed as a referendum on Jeremy Corbyn. Those who say Crispin Blunt in a room full of poppers or the corpse of Sir Edward Heath could lead the Tories to a majority in 2020 against a Corbyn led Labour Party might need to re-evaluate their beliefs.

If Goldsmith does win in May, then it may spur the Parliamentary Labour Party into action against Corbyn lest they go the same way as Khan at the 2020 general election.

TSE

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