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| What impact will Jeremy Corbyn have on key issues facing the UK? | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Foreign policy and defence | Foreign policy and defence |
| It is hard to think of another Labour leader – or any British political leader – who has been as passionate about foreign affairs as Jeremy Corbyn. | |
| Predecessors such as Tony Blair took a keen interest after becoming prime minister, but Corbyn, in his three decades as a backbencher, has pursued international issues from Palestine to Venezuela, shaping a world view diametrically opposed to the Conservatives. | Predecessors such as Tony Blair took a keen interest after becoming prime minister, but Corbyn, in his three decades as a backbencher, has pursued international issues from Palestine to Venezuela, shaping a world view diametrically opposed to the Conservatives. |
| Corbyn, at his campaign rallies, often prefaced his policy positions by saying they were up for debate, not only in the shadow cabinet and parliamentary Labour party but also the party at large. | Corbyn, at his campaign rallies, often prefaced his policy positions by saying they were up for debate, not only in the shadow cabinet and parliamentary Labour party but also the party at large. |
| But it is hard to see a Labour party led by Corbyn do anything other than vote next year against the renewal of the estimated £80bn Trident nuclear programme, reversing existing party policy. With the SNP also voting against, the outcome will be tighter than if one of Corbyn’s rivals had been elected. | But it is hard to see a Labour party led by Corbyn do anything other than vote next year against the renewal of the estimated £80bn Trident nuclear programme, reversing existing party policy. With the SNP also voting against, the outcome will be tighter than if one of Corbyn’s rivals had been elected. |
| One of the first big foreign policy tests in the Commons will be in the government’s planned vote in favour of RAF airstrikes in Syria. Again, it is hard to envisage a Corbyn-led Labour party doing anything other than voting against, given he has repeatedly said bombing will not help resolve the crisis. | |
| There is more scope for debate on Labour’s position on membership of both the EU and Nato, with Corbyn initially sounding sceptical about both but adopting a more nuanced position over the course of the leadership campaign. Labour going into the EU referendum half-heartedly would increase the chances of an exit. | |
| It will be intriguing to see how Corbyn is received should he visit Washington as Labour leader. Ronald Reagan, opposed to Labour’s then unilateral nuclear disarmament policy, tried to humiliate Neil Kinnock on a visit to the White House in 1987. It might be best for Corbyn to make an early trip while Barack Obama is still president. Ewen MacAskill, defence and intelligence correspondent | |
| Scotland | Scotland |
| Corbyn will face his first electoral challenge in Scotland, helping his party try to avoid another humiliating rout at the hands of the Scottish National party in next May’s Holyrood elections. Nicola Sturgeon’s nationalists are currently at 60% in opinion polls. | |
| In a hard-fought battle for Scotland’s centre-left vote, Corbyn’s supporters believe he will re-energise Labour’s disillusioned and fragile support, particularly in urban central Scotland. There is anecdotal evidence he is re-engaging ex-Labour voters who voted yes in last year’s independence referendum. | In a hard-fought battle for Scotland’s centre-left vote, Corbyn’s supporters believe he will re-energise Labour’s disillusioned and fragile support, particularly in urban central Scotland. There is anecdotal evidence he is re-engaging ex-Labour voters who voted yes in last year’s independence referendum. |
| His allies laud his authenticity, grassroots appeal and integrity, against an SNP they say “talks left but acts right”. He can match the SNP on abandoning Britain’s nuclear deterrent, outbid the SNP on opposing austerity and press harder on public ownership of industry. | |
| But he knows little of Scottish politics. He has implied he is uncomfortable with greater tax devolution. And the SNP’s greatest strength is likely to be Corbyn’s greatest challenge: it is remarkably disciplined and has 56 energetic MPs, while Labour faces months of infighting that could quickly undermine Corbyn’s wider popularity and Labour’s effectiveness at Westminster. | But he knows little of Scottish politics. He has implied he is uncomfortable with greater tax devolution. And the SNP’s greatest strength is likely to be Corbyn’s greatest challenge: it is remarkably disciplined and has 56 energetic MPs, while Labour faces months of infighting that could quickly undermine Corbyn’s wider popularity and Labour’s effectiveness at Westminster. |
| If Labour bombs under Corbyn, Sturgeon made clear she will press the case that independence is the only viable alternative for Scotland. | If Labour bombs under Corbyn, Sturgeon made clear she will press the case that independence is the only viable alternative for Scotland. |
| Corbyn will soon discover Labour faces battles for survival on two fronts – Holyrood and Westminster – and has promised to prioritise Scotland in the coming weeks. He will need unity, seamless collaboration with Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader who backed his rival Yvette Cooper, and some Commons performances that prove he can outflank the SNP. Severin Carrell, Scotland editor | |
| Europe | |
| The Corbyn landslide means that Britain’s two big parties are led by eurosceptics fated to campaign to keep the UK in the EU. David Cameron does not have a good word to say about the EU. He is going to have to change that tune soon if he is to succeed in leading the campaign to stay in the EU in the referendum. | |
| Corbyn, who voted to take Britain out the last time the question was asked in 1975, will also perhaps have to choke on his beliefs if Labour, until now a given, is to campaign for continued membership. | |
| The things that Corbyn likes most about the EU are the things Cameron would like to get rid of – workers’ rights, benefits, anything that falls under the rubric of “social Europe”, the chapter of legislation that Blair took Britain back into after John Major secured exemptions. | |
| Corbyn’s attitude will presumably hinge on the results of Cameron’s renegotiation, the contours of which should be clearer by Christmas. | |
| Before becoming prime minister, Cameron famously demonstrated his Eurosceptic credentials and antagonised Angela Merkel by taking the Tories out of the European People’s party, the pan-EU grouping of the mainstream centre-right. | |
| Will Corbyn follow suit with the European social democrats, dominated by the German SPD and France’s Socialists? Probably not. But his known views coincide less with theirs than with the radical left in the European parliament grouped around Greece’s Syriza, Spain’s Podemos, and Germany’s Die Linke. Ian Traynor, Europe editor | |
| Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland |
| On the edge of power, Blair radically altered Labour’s policy on Northern Ireland. Until New Labour the party line was support for a united Ireland, albeit in opposition to the IRA’s violent campaign. Blair switched that position to one of neutrality to bring the unionist community on board. Labour would no longer be the ally of just one side, ie northern nationalists. On Blair’s invite, David Trimble became the first unionist leader to attend a Labour conference (1996) and later embraced the Good Friday agreement. | |
| Corbyn took an altogether different view on Ireland. He supported pulling British troops out of Ulster, he met with Sinn Féin during the IRA “armed struggle”, even inviting republicans to Westminster shortly after the bombing of the Tory party conference in Brighton in 1984. | |
| At the time he belonged to a tendency in the British left that regarded the IRA campaign as “legitimate”. Gerry Adams calls him a “good friend of Ireland”. In contrast, he is viewed with hostility and suspicion across the unionist section of Northern Irish society. Corbyn’s current shadow Northern Ireland minister, Ivan Lewis, is highly regarded on both sides of the divide. If the newly elected Labour leader wants to build bridges with unionists, he might at the very least need to persuade Lewis to stay in that post. Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent |