Left Wing Labour Leaders We Have Known: Michael Foot, George Lansbury, Keir Hardie and, yes, Jeremy Corbyn

This is a slightly updated version revised during the Labour conference, 2017. After the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the Labour leadership, the example of Michael Foot was much remarked upon. Jeremy Corbyn is not a Michael Foot. Corbyn has, until then, had been nothing but an outsider, a maverick rebel. In his younger days, Michael Foot was every inch the rebel, but by the time he was elected Labour leader, he was very much an insider, having been Minster of Employment, Leader of the House of Lords and Deputy Leader of the party. Indeed, Corbyn’s spiritual father, Tony Benn, at that point in the process of reinventing himself as the people’s Tony, had in fact been even more of an insider: Postmaster General, Minister of Technology, Minister of Industry and then Energy. By contrast, Corbyn has never held office of any sort. Furthermore, Foot was elected leader as the…