LABOUR'S RISING FORTUNES

Some of the large crowd listening to Jeremy Corbyn in Leeds last week.

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour enjoy a surge in the polls, while support drops for the ruling Conservatives. Suddenly, all talk of a 'landslide victory' for the Tories evaporates...

ONE OF THE reasons why British Prime Minister Theresa May called an early election was to supposedly capitalise on the plight of a hopelessly divided Labour Party. That was the narrative that the corporate media were happy to run with and one that the Blairites were happy to buy into as well.

But all talk of a landslide victory for the Conservative Party appears to be evaporating with the news that its lead over Labour has been cut in half in the space of just one week.

Theresa May's party is now polling at 44 percent of the vote, down 5 points, versus 35 percent for the Labour Party, up 4 points. The poll of 1,925 adults carried out on May 18 and 19 saw the Liberal Democrats unchanged at 9 percent and the United Kingdom Independence Party also unchanged at 3 percent.

The corporate media have been quick to blame Theresa May for the unexpected drop in support - pointing to her refusal to rule out tax rises and pension cuts. But this explanation ignores the fact that Labour's rise in support has occurred after it released its manifesto. While it has been predictably savaged by the business sector and the corporate media, it has generally been favourably received by the British public.

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking to large crowds throughout the country, far in excess of anything May has been able to command. Not bad for a Labour leader who supposedly lacks 'credibility'.