Corbyn crusade turns north

Jeremy Corbyn’s summer crusade will land in Scotland as he continues a post-election charm offensive. Five days this month will be spent wooing voters in marginal seats as Labour attempt to capitalise on the flood of support that has engulfed the party in recent months.

Corbyn’s confidence has grown exponentially since June’s surprise election result. He has toured the country, receiving a rock star’s reception at the Glastonbury festival, and swilling pints with voters in Conservative electorates.

The Labour leader’s war on inequality has resonated with younger voters who are frustrated with their lack of voice in establishment politics and are mobilising in number not seen in decades. Britain could well be experiencing the rumblings of a political revolution similar to those experienced in France and the United States. An outsider wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that Corbyn, not Theresa May, had emerged victorious from the election.

After this change of fortune it is clear that Labour see the time as ripe to win back their Scottish heartland. The question is, how will Corbyn present himself in the marginal SNP seats he is targeting?

The SNP have been quick to re-iterate that many of his progressivist policies are highly similar to their own. Corbyn will thus be seeking to capitalise on the backlash against Nicola Sturgeon’s drive for a second independence referendum. He will seek to present Labour as a point of difference — a more reformist option than the Conservatives, and as a party that will focus on the everyday issues without the distractions of secessionism.

Corbyn faces a challenge convincing Scots of his preferred harder Brexit model, especially his continued insistence that Britain will have to leave the single market. I expect the SNP to heavily push this point, and it could ultimately be his undoing.

Labour is faced with a seminal moment in Scotland. How the party leader is received in the coming weeks will go a long way to showing whether chants of ‘oh Jeremy Corbyn’ will ring across the glens, or be blown away in a highland gale.