Thousands of Labour Party Members Rallied to 'Keep Corbyn In'

Around 10,000 Labour party members turned out in Parliament square on Monday night to show their support for embattled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Over the past three days, two-thirds of Corbyn's shadow cabinet have resigned over the leader's supposed failure to get the Remain votes in for the EU referendum, and Corbyn today faces a vote of no-confidence from his entire parliamentary party. Noticing that Jez probably needed some support in these tough times, the Labour leader's fans from the grassroots of the party, as well as a few trade union leaders, came into central London to say "Jez We Still Probably Can". The demonstration met on Parliament square as Jeremy was inside the Houses of Parliament having a fraught meeting with his rebellious Labour MPs, many of whom were calling for his resignation. "I'm told Jeremy can hear us out here, so let's make some noise and show him some support!", Shelly Asquith, NUS vice president, implored the crowd.

Perhaps the main view expressed on the grass in front of parliament last night was that the Labour MPs fomenting the coup against Corbyn inside were essentially spitting in the faces of Labour members who had voted Corbyn into the leadership in record numbers in the first place.

Milo Saville, a 19-year-old history student from Oxford and a Labour party said that the rally was important simply to remind Labour MPs of the grass-roots backing their leader had. "These kind of events are really important for Corbyn", Milo said. "This is what the Labour party should be about. He's got a huge mandate from members from the last leadership election and it seems the parliamentary Labour party can't get behind that."

But something was going to be done. "Deselection" was the word on everyone's lips. The solution, according to Milo and many others I spoke to, is to effectively get rid of Labour MPs who don't agree with Corbyn. "They need to start deselecting. It's as simple as that. The leadership should have more control over who should be a member of the parliamentary party or you are going to get this incongruity between members and the MPs, as is happening now." Corbyn's support is still running strong in the trade unions too, apparently; several union leaders turned out to voice their support.

Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, didn't mince his words: "These rebellious Labour MPs are involved in the most self-indulgent, self-serving type of politics that's alienated working people for years."

"When it comes to blaming people for this referendum's result," he went on, "I think Jeremy's position was the most honest of all the leading politicians: he didn't just say we had to remain, he said we had to reform Europe to make it a workers' Europe." "We need a Labour party that will stand up for working people in this country. We need an end to the appalling housing crisis. We need a government that's going to have the balls to stand up to some of these multinational companies. We need Jeremy Corbyn."

Yesterday, Len McCluskey, head of the Unite, the UK's largest union, hinted that MPs disloyal to Corbyn could lose the backing of trade unions and should be deselected as Labour candidates at the next election. The unions still have power in the Labour party, and Jeremy seems to still wield a lot of it.

The journalist and left-wing writer Paul Mason, next on stage, also apparently recognised the potential for mass deselections of disloyal Labour MPs. "We've gotta do stuff. We need 100 new MPs from all these young people, all these women, all these people from ethnic minority groups, disabled people, gay people. Get some people in their who understand the hardships of working class life, not the 'hardship' of having your career blighted."

Soon, the crowd having been warmed up, John McDonnell was bundled by his security through a throng of press photographers to the stage to announce his continued support for his friend and comrade Jeremy. "What we've seen in the last few days is a small number of Labour MPs seeking to undermine the democratic decisions of the Labour party members and the labour and trade union movement", he said to rapturous applause.

"We're standing here to maintain the democracy of our movement, to maintain Jeremy as the leader of our movement."

A couple of hours after the demo had started, Jeremy himself was spotted down the street. Confronted by a wall of cameras and TV presenters shouting "are you going to resign?", the Labour leader looked flustered and a little worse for ware for the gruelling two days he'd just faced.

On top of the podium, however, he was back in fighting form. Flanked by his loyal lieutenants Dianne Abbott and John McDonnell, he called for an end to racism, after the rise in racist attacks following the EU referendum, and an end to austerity; continued struggle against homophobia and misogyny; action against climate change and a crisis in mental health.

All fair enough, but it seemed to lack any mention of the turmoil in the Labour Party. The closest he got to this was towards the end. "We have to think of how we behave ourselves", Corbyn told the crowd, "when we disagree with each other as we sometimes do, if we hurl abuse at each other, the first two or three times it's quite funny, or can be, but by the fourth or fifth time, you've totally lost the audience who may have been listening to you in the first place. So we pursue the politics of justice and of peace around the world. But we must also pursue the politics of respect to one another."

And with a lot of clapping, Corbyn left the stage and was bundled, through a sea of press and supporters, back into Parliament, where MPs will vote later today in a motion of no confidence in him.

More on Corbyn:

Jeremy Corbyn: The Outsider

How the Labour Party Sleepwalked Into a Post-Brexit Meltdown

Why Corbyn Can't Be Measured Like Other Politicians