Sky Views: Rebel Corbyn has become traditional – Sky News

Lewis Goodall, Political Correspondent

One of Jeremy Corbyn's biggest acolytes, Matt Zarb Cousin, wrote convincingly in the Guardian on Wednesday that one of the keys to the success of his former boss in last week's General Election was people recognising that he was a "different kind of politician, that he genuinely wanted to take on the establishment".

He's not wrong. I've clocked up over a thousand miles over the course of the election but not once did I meet a voter who thought that Mr Corbyn was a traditional politician. Along with the occasional salty remark, whatever most voters thought of his views, they were largely united in seeing him as different, a firebrand, a renegade even - a break with the past.

But for my money, the great secret of the Corbyn leadership is just how much of a traditional Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn has become, at least in the domestic policy arena.

Through the development of his own political antenna and the Labour Party's structures slowly taming him, the man we think of as the most radical leader in the party's recent past has in deed if not in diction become reliably middle-of-the-road and represents continuity with the recent past.

Gone is the doctrinaire campaigner of old, to be replaced by a man who, yes, has principle, but chooses his battles.

He accepts policies he doesn't much care for because he knows what is politic and what isn't. He might occasionally say something he doesn't believe for party unity or to serve his wider political aims. He has become, in other words, a politician and a successful one at that.

The proof of this particular political pudding is in Labour's manifesto - the first since 1983 written with the Left broadly in control of the party's levers.

But few on any side of the party, even the Blairite right, had any complaint when it was published. Yes, the nationalisations might not have been every candidate's cup of tea but their implementation was so staggered and piecemeal that few bothered to care.

The policy on austerity, despite the fanfare, was much the same as Ed Miliband's, as were many other policies. Even tuition fees, perhaps the most striking inclusion, finished a journey which Mr Miliband had begun.

Most astoundingly, the Labour leadership quietly accepted the Government's changes to welfare benefits. The Labour manifesto didn't even mention the Government's welfare benefits freeze up to 2020 and the party seemed unclear as to whether to change it.

Much of the document was redolent of microwaved Millibandism or good old-fashioned bread and butter New Labourism: policies on school meals, 10,000 new police officers, more homes, childcare - put them on a pledgecard and any self-respecting New Labour apparatchik would have happily brandished it. The word "socialism" didn't appear once.

And whatever his reservations, this former vice chair of CND stood on a manifesto with a commitment to renew Trident at its centre. He may have squirmed when asked about the promise but the Labour Party hierarchy made sure it was there and, should another election come, it would be there again.

But something has changed. Because, unlike 2015, Labour is gaining seats. Uncomfortably for a man who values substance over style, I suspect it's more the latter which boosted Labour last Thursday.

After all, for the mansion tax alone, I think the 2015 manifesto has some claim to be at least as radical than its 2017 successor. But I don't think it would have made any difference to Ed Miliband if he had stood on every word of it two years ago.

It was actually Mr Corbyn's mix of meat and potato, moderate Labour policies with his personal brand of radicalism and rhetorical style which created an electoral sweet spot for Labour. It married traditional Labour voters with a burgeoning cultural, youth-led movement which taps into the zeitgeist.

You could walk down the streets of east London or hop on the tube and see people wear Jeremy Corbyn t-shirts or badges. In saying you're part of his tribe, you're saying something about yourself - an instant cultural signifier.

You couldn't say that of Ed Miliband.

Mr Corbyn is a vinyl politician who reeks of authenticity, even if the end result isn't pitch perfect. Redolent of a different age, a slither of an imagined more authentically Labour past. He is therefore perfectly placed for a generation who crave "authenticity" above all else.

And here's the rub: neither part of this Labour 2017 jigsaw would have worked without the other.

Mr Corbyn unbound and unrestrained would have been anathema to the electorate and a traditional stack of Labour bread and butter middle-of-the-road policies presented by a traditional middle-of-the-road Labour politician like Owen Smith wouldn't have worked either without Mr Corbyn's personal zeal.

Ironically for someone who so eschews free markets, Mr Corbyn has a brand. And this, mixed with a traditional retail, not especially radical Labour offer, made a potent cocktail.

Mr Corbyn called the 2017 manifesto "radical but responsible". Not half. We didn't know it then but it beats "strong and stable" every time.

Previously on Sky Views: Sam Kiley - Cutting immigration may crash economy

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Sky Views: Rebel Corbyn has become traditional - Sky News