Phil Bevin, a former member of Corbyn’s staff, has told The Canary “the allegations against Jeremy made in the Guardian and recent books by mainstream journalists are wildly inaccurate”.
Bevin, who worked in Corbyn’s Leader of the Opposition office (LOTO) Correspondence Unit from June 2018 to April 2020, said, “an inaccurate picture of Jeremy’s leadership is once again being painted”.
A guardian of the establishment
Once hailed as a progressive media outlet of the left, the Guardian continually worked to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership during his time in office. For example, a study by the Media Reform Coalition of over 250 articles and news segments from the largest UK news providers found that the Guardian consistently published misleading or inaccurate statements regarding allegations of the Labour party’s antisemitism.
Bevin said:
I do not understand why former Labour employees are happy to talk to journalists working for corporate newspapers, which only ever really promote their own interests; mainstream media sources are not and never will be platforms for socialist politics
Great journalism – more informative than the mainstream press – is available from a wide range of sources these days, so there’s no need to rely on poor reporting from corporate media. We should always focus on the issues that matter; this was Jeremy’s consistent message to LOTO staff.
Bevin lays the blame for Corbyn’s 2019 defeat squarely at the feet of mainstream media news outlets that atrociously misrepresented him and “only ever serve to undermine people like Jeremy, who are serious about bringing real change. I think it’s time people stopped promoting this nonsense and ceased buying mainstream newspapers”.
Mutual respect
Moving on to discuss his experience of working with Corbyn, Bevin told The Canary:
I witnessed Jeremy’s consistent professionalism in near-impossible circumstances. He retained a sharp focus on his goals and spoke of his vision regularly at staff meetings. Had this not been true, there is no way he could have held his position as Labour Leader for 5 years, seeing off more than one attempted coup and a constant barrage of vicious attacks.
Jeremy was a pleasure to work with, and when things got tough, such as arguments between ‘leavers’ and ‘remainers’, he held things together, always stressing the need for mutual respect between people holding different points of view. Any suggestion that Jeremy was disengaged is completely wrong. He was an uplifting presence in the office and was always interested in hearing the views of LOTO staff.
Change will come
Looking to the future, Bevin said:
I am just one of the millions of people that Jeremy has inspired. Thanks to Jeremy, a new generation now knows that we can have a just society and we have our socialist policies, which will help us to do it.
Change will come, so long as we keep fighting for it. Jeremy will continue promoting peace, social justice and defending human rights and we, the movement, will do so too.
Unfortunately, that change continues to be hampered by the Guardian and other establishment outlets who are attempting to rewrite Corbyn’s history. The future will only look different if the left engages with news outlets that consistently report honestly on our movement.
Featured image via Wikimedia/Rwendland
