THERESA MAY should “resign” to help her fractured party “out of their nightmare,” Jeremy Corbyn told the Durham Miners’ Gala at the weekend.

The Labour leader attracted a record crowd of over 200,000 people who chanted the by now familiar refrain: “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” in unison to the tune of the hit White Stripes song Seven Nation Army.

“I know [the Tories] are living through a nightmare at the moment.

“I’m somebody, as you’re very well aware, that doesn’t get involved in personal abuse and would never exploit somebody else’s misfortune,” he said.

“So I want to help them out. Feel free, at any time, to resign and we’ll have another general election.”

Mr Corbyn’s confident challenge reflects the fact that support for Labour continues to surge.

He said the party had gained its biggest increase in vote share since “before I was born” in last month’s snap election, adding that it was all down to people power.

“That didn’t happen because of the kindness of the press barons. That happened because of ordinary people who saw the chance to do things better,” he continued. “The commentariat wrote us off.”

He attacked the Prime Minister for cosying up to US President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg on Friday and Saturday, saying that he expected her to seek a post-Brexit trade deal with the US akin to the toxic Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, for her part, attacked the Conservatives’ £1 billion power deal with Northern Ireland’s ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party.

She said the deal showed that Mr Trump was “not the only orange man” the Tories were keen to cut deals with.

Mr Trump, who has made shocking comments about women and their bodies, had “replaced the audacity of hope with the audacity of grope,” Ms Rayner added.

Left-wing film director Ken Loach — known for I, Daniel Blake, Cathy Come Home and many other acclaimed movies — told the gathering: “We have a Labour leader that, for the first time in my memory, stands with the people.”

But he warned that implementing Labour’s radical programme for government — which includes renationalising key services, axing tuition fees, building truly affordable homes and setting a £10 an hour minimum wage — would not be easy.

“The closer we get to power, the more vicious the attacks will get and the stronger we need to be,” he said.
Mr Loach also called for Labour MPs to face reselection by party members in their constituencies, insisting that there could be no repeat of the parliamentary party’s previous attempts to destabilise Mr Corbyn.

“I think it’s perfectly democratic that, when members have served for a particular time in Parliament, they need to be reaffirmed or reconfirmed by their members,” he explained.

And, stressing that he was not criticising any of the platform speakers, he called for “union leaders who will not only talk left but act left.”

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey called for Labour MPs to offer “no more self-indulgent jaunts like Chuka Umunna and his merry band” — a reference to the Streatham MP’s recent Queen’s Speech amendment calling for continued membership of the EU single market.

Mr Loach said the increased majorities of MPs such as Mr Umunna were not due to “personal charisma” but the “Corbyn bounce.”

Communication Workers Union deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger said: “The Establishment is now frightened again. Working-class politics is back on the agenda, and they are scared.”

conradlandin@peoples-press.com